News from AAAS Chicago meeting: In-Depth Reporting From Scientific American:

This blog features links to both the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and to Scientific America in the right hand column under Science & SciAm Magazines. Scientific American Newsletters recently sent me an update combining both of these resources. The main link is provided below along with links to some of the articles of interest to this blog and my other blog Milestones for a New Millennium. Starting off though is the video blog from Science News. I especially enjoyed the insights regarding Digg.

In-Depth Report: News from AAAS

• At AAAS, Al Gore urges scientists to get involved in climate change debate
  "Keep your day jobs, but get involved in the debate," the former vice president said
• Climate Change Erodes Marine Reserves
  Shifting species may mean less protection for imperiled fisheries
• Rise in Malaria Rates, Drug Resistance Tied to Climate
  At AAAS, a researcher describes how treating more people for the mosquito-borne parasite could lead to more resistance to drugs
• Massive effort underway to save endangered seeds
  In many cases, only a handful of seeds remain from rare varieties of barley, rice and wheat whose history can be traced back to the Neolithic era
• Global warming seen worse than predicted
  IPCC member Chris Field says "the actual trajectory of climate change is more serious" than any of the climate predictions in the IPCC's fourth assessment report

It has been a while since I have explored these resources for new ideas and that has been a detriment for me. While it is not blind faith, I still have a great deal of confidence in addressing many of the problems we face today through technology and science, more on that in the future.

New Paradigms Crossing Paths Science and Religion

This journey was started to find new paradigms. The endeavor to find new paradigms has taken this blog through a number of different new pathways. Two, which are often seen as conflicting, but which both help us to define ourselves are science and religion. Both of the sources cited here are open-minded in their approach. The contrast is enlightening and some commonality can be found even from those who strongly espouse one view or the other.

Edward O. Wilson

Host Robert Wright talks with E.O. Wilson, a self-defined a materialist, a biological determinist, and a secular-humanist, about his thesis of sociobiology and how the idea that the human mind is shaped as much by genetic inheritance as it is by culture influenced his views intelligent design, free will, and how science and religion can potentially come together in order to save life on earth.

Karen Armstrong in Conversation with Alan Jones

Author of "The Bible: A Biography", Karen Armstrong and Rev. Alan Jones, the Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco discuss Armstrong's latest book biblical criticism, biblical literalism, and the Golden Rule. Armstrong provides her interpretation of The Good Book and they also confront the New Atheists who have recently attacked the Abrahamic religions.

Finally, this TED talk featuring one of this years TED Prize winners. Jill Tarter: Astronomer and Director of the SETI Institute provides some new perspectives on our place in the universe.

Related Posts:

Jeff Sachs Writes, Tyler Cowen Asks, Wired Warns, Europe Ponders and E.O. Wilson Educates About Biodiversity

YouTube From the Self Indulgent to Global Outreach

One of the more popular social media tools on the Internet is YouTube, which started off as means for millions to upload self-indulgent videos of themselves, has now become both an information resource tool and a means of connecting with others on social causes. The challenge for those who would use this resource to connect with others, especially new converts, is gaining the trust of those you would use to help disseminate the videos through social sites such as Face Book or MySpace without having to spend a fortune. The New York Times published two stories that deal with these issues.

BUSINESS / MEDIA & ADVERTISING | January 18, 2009

Ping: At First, Funny Videos. Now, a Reference Tool.

By MIGUEL HELFT

YouTube is rapidly morphing into a popular search engine and a new entry point into the Web.And now YouTube, conceived as a video hosting and sharing site, has become a bona fide search tool. Searches on it in the United States recently edged out those on Yahoo, which had long been the No. 2 search engine, behind Google. (Google, incidentally, owns YouTube.) In November, Americans conducted nearly 2.8 billion searches on YouTube, about 200 million more than on Yahoo, according to comScore.

BUSINESS / MEDIA & ADVERTISING | December 14, 2008

Digital Domain: Advertisers Face Hurdles on Social Networking Sites

By RANDALL STROSS

Web advertising experts see a myriad of difficulties in making brand advertising work on social networking sites.

And when they try to take advantage of new “social advertising,” extending their commercial message to a member’s friends, their ads will be noticed, all right, but not necessarily favorably. Members are understandably reluctant to become shills. IDC, the technology research firm, published a study last month that reported that just 3 percent of Internet users in the United States would willingly let publishers use their friends for advertising. The report described social advertising as “stillborn.”

Change-agent organizations do not have the same goals as companies such as Procter & Gamble. They will face similar issues when attempting to get others to put videos or other social media outlets on their websites.

Youtube, itself, has become more of a social outreach advocate than merely a social gathering site. One example is their work at Davos, the location for the world's latest economic forum.

New Videos from the Davos Question Matthias Lüfkens - The Davos Debates continue... Dan Shapiro joins the Davos Debates Ramazan Salman and Rabbi Soetendorp join the Davos Debates Imam Abu Eesa joins the Davos Debates Ramazan Salman -Social Entrepreneur- joins the Davos Debates Cindy Ehnes joins the Davos Debates Harvard University's Peter Galison joins the Davos Debates S-G of the OECD Angel Gurria joins the Davos Debates Tammy Haddad and Andrea Newman networking at Davos 2009 Ricardo Young Silva joins the Davos Debates Professor Muhammad Yunus responds to the Girl Effect Zurich Financial Services CEO James Schiro joins the Debates Zurich Financial Services CEO James Schiro joins the Debates Jeff Nathenson fails to join the Davos Debates Zurich Financial Services CEO James Schiro joins the Debates Arthur Yap joins the Davos Debates Olivier Piou of Gemalto joins the Davos Debates Social Entrepreneur Fernando Nilo joins the Davos Debates Professor Mohammad Yunus joins the Davos Debates Ann Veneman talks about the Girl Effect at Davos