1
One measure of how rapidly the Old West is turning into the New is a
consensus that managing cattle on the public lands is no longer the bureau's
number one problem. That dubious honor has shifted to a more powerful
harbinger of ecological woe - the off-road vehicle, alias the SUV, the dune
buggy, the dirt bike, and the ATV, the all-terrain vehicle that goes where
even cattle cannot. "The dramatic increase and subsequent environmental
impacts from these popular recreational vehicles was not anticipated," a
red-faced bureau confessed in a report to Congress earlier last year. And it
went on to cite those impacts: a proliferation of unauthorized trails,
habitat fragmentation, a reduction in air and water quality, and conflicts
between motorized and nonmotorized visitors.

The big open: Going public with the public lands. National Geographic,
August 2001, p. 22-29.


2
Meanwhile, scientists also are beginning to view cancer through the lens of
stem cell biology. With the finding that mature cells can return to the
primitive stem cell state, Steindler and other researchers, including Tanya
Ignatova in his lab, are investigating whether some tumors may originate
from a newly created stem cell whose DNA has been damaged.
"Perhaps a mature cell was exposed to something that turned it back into a
stem cell and now it can produce a lot of bad relatives - a proliferation of
cells that form a tumor," said Steindler, who discussed his lab's research
in a symposium at last month's meeting of the American Association of Cancer
Research in New Orleans. "We have ways to study this. As we get a better
understanding of tumor origins and as we improve our ability to manipulate
cellular behavior, we hope this will lead to improved ways of battling
cancer."
Adult stem cells may be recruited for war on cancer. Daily University
Science News. http://unisci.com/stories/20012/0416011.htm


3
Over the past 40 years, the incentives for pursuing such research have been
many and diverse. On one level there is the sheer intellectual excitement of
getting to know the ways of life on an intimate basis. On another, such
studies offer the opportunity to use new information about the structure and
behavior of DNA for useful purposes: for example, improving understanding of
DNA replication provides a means for controlling the unrestrained
proliferation of DNA found in cancer cells.
(2000). A positron named Priscilla: Scientific discovery at the Frontier.
National Academy of Sciences. 


4
Both these lines of study may reveal more molecular details about DNA repair
in advanced organisms, including humans. But they can also offer an
explanation of how uncorrected damage to DNA leads to the uncontrolled
proliferation of DNA and cell growth characteristic of cancer. Such research
offers a clear link between the erudite aspects of DNA synthesis described
earlier and the more general goal of using basic science to reduce human
suffering.

National Academy of Sciences. (2000). A positron named Priscilla: Scientific
discovery at the Frontier. National Academy Press.




5
Both countries have been advancing their nuclear programs almost ever since
they gained independence from Britain. Understanding this history is crucial
in figuring out what to do now, as well as preventing future proliferation
of nuclear weapons. Although the standoff between Pakistan and India has
distinct local characteristics, both countries owe much to other nuclear
states. The materials used in their bombs were manufactured with Western
technology; both countries' justifications for joining the nuclear club drew
heavily on cold war thinking. 
Ramana, M.V. & Nayyar, A.H. (2001). India, Pakistan, and the Bomb.
Scientific American, December 2001, p. 72-83.



6
The limitations of Western nonproliferation policy are now painfully
obvious. It has relied primarily on supply-side export controls to prevent
access to nuclear technologies. But Pakistan's program reveals that these
are inadequate. Any effect strategy for nonproliferation must also involve
demand-side measures - policies to assure countries that the bomb is not a
requisite for true security. The most important demand-side measure is
progress toward global nuclear disarmament. Some people argue that global
disarmament and nonproliferation are unrelated. But as George Perkovich of
the W. Alton Jones Foundation in Charlottsville, Va., observed in his
masterly study of the Indian nuclear program, that premise is "the grandest
illusion of the nuclear age." It may also be the most dangerous.

Ramana, M.V. & Nayyar, A.H. (2001). India, Pakistan, and the Bomb.
Scientific American, December 2001, p. 72-83.



7
Between 1980 and 2000, an analysis by the nonpartisan Alliance for Better
Campaigns showed, the amount spent on political ads in major market TV
outlets more than quadrupled, from less than $200 billion to almost $800
billion, even after adjusting for inflation.

Part of the reason for that extraordinary increase is the proliferation of
ads by political parties and private groups, financed by the six-figure,
soft-money contributions the pending bill would outlaw. 

"Proliferation" Passages		CVA Think-Aloud Protocols