Stephen Lansing “Perfect Order: A Thousand Years in Bali” PDF: http://www.santafe.edu/research/publications/workingpapers/03-05-030.pdf This lecture at the Long Now foundation was a fascinating look at how one thousand years of Balinese ritual, ceremony, and social organization have resulted highly optimal methods of regulating water distribution, rice crop and pest control in Bali. Lansing pointed out that a simulation of adaptive networks produced…

The coming clash of civilizations, if it arrives, is going to be so boring. Boring because it will be a confrontation of two incompatible systems: one modern, one traditional. There’s nothing to make one better than the other, to make one smarter than the other. Nothing will be said, really, because the two cultures don’t share a common language. And…

(This story has been modified to fit your view of the world) Iran tells IAEA to remove cameras (CNN) — Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency to remove its surveillance cameras and other equipment from its unclear sites by mid-February, the U.N.’s unclear watchdog has said. The declarations were made in a letter from E. Khalilipour, vice president…

“I now have a face like everyone else,” she told reporters Monday… Photos making the rounds today would seem to cast that into some doubt. But whereas the discussion a couple months ago centered on the transplant operation, there’s no turning away now: this is her face. I dont think we can look at a person and not see their…