50/50 Chance of Easter Island-Like Collapse

In the past, societies that had not many people and with rather simple technology still managed to destroy their environments. For example, Easter Island with maybe 20,000 people with just stone and wooden tools ­ they did manage to deforest the island and so doing, they destroyed their society. It took them 850 years to do it. Today, though, (on the Earth), we don't have 20,000 people. We have 6.5 billion and we have bulldozers and nuclear power, so we're far more people and far more potent and destructive technology. We can destroy our environment much faster than the Easter Islanders. In fact, there are many parts of the world that have gotten de-forested within half a dozen years, or within a few decades.

Computationally Irreducible?

For two decades, researchers have suspected that what makes such events so unpredictable is their inherent complexity. In the Earth's crust and its ecosystems, and in any economy, events depend on the delicate interactions of millions of parts, and seemingly insignificant accidents can sometimes have massive repercussions. Mathematicians have even declared that some complex systems are "computationally irreducible", meaning there is no short cut to knowing their future. The only way to find out what will happen is to actually let it happen...

Political meddling alleged in US wildlife service

Many scientists at the US Fish and Wildlife Service say they have been pushed to alter or withdraw scientific findings on the protection of species for political reasons.

Zero Intelligence

A model that assumes stock market traders have zero intelligence has been found to mimic the behaviour of the London Stock Exchange very closely. However, the surprising result does not mean traders are actually just buying and selling at random, say researchers. Instead, it suggests that the movement of markets depend less on the strategic behaviour of traders and more on the structure and constraints of the trading system itself.

The Long-Predicted Global Virtual Library.

Google is currently working with libraries to digitally scan books from their collections to make them available to internet users everywhere....."Within two decades, most of the world's knowledge will be digitized and available, one hopes for free reading on the Internet, just as there is free reading in libraries today," said Michael A. Keller, Stanford University's head librarian.