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Lovelock was hired by NASA in the 60's to begin the process of looking for life on Mars. He concluded that a lifeless planet would have a static environment in equilibrium (or chemical equilibrium), unlike a planet with life which would neither be static or have chemical equilibrium. This seemed to dovetail with the article's " QUESTION #5:WHAT DOES LIFE ONOTHER PLANETS LOOK LIKE?". Readers of evolutionary biology and people who study game theory in economics will probably find much theory in common with the Zimmer article.

I just posted this and didn't see an email on your site, so I'll repost this hoping you have /. set to notify you.

The flexi problem has been fixed for the Psion so it might fix the Ericson. I spent a lot of time hunting down a PDA that runs off AA batteries. Tom the Pom, another geek read my slashdot question about this, and recommended the Psion 5mx. I found a place that repairs them.

Paul at Psion Flexi Home fixes that problem. You should send yours to him. He sold me a one cheap for my upcoming round the world trip. I think he charges 55 pounds - $100 (USD) for fixing it. If you pick one up from him, please mention Dave Smith.

I got my PDA a few days ago and I'm happy. It's another thing I don't have to worry about.

The flexi problem has been fixed. I spent a lot of time hunting down a PDA that runs off AA batteries. Another geek read my slashdot question about this, and recommended the Psion 5mx. I found a place that repairs them.

Paul at Psion Flexi Home fixes that problem. You should send yours to him. He sold me a one cheap for my upcoming round the world trip. I think he charges 55 pounds - $100 (USD) for fixing it. If you pick one up from him, please mention Dave Smith.

I got my PDA a few days ago and I'm happy. I'm so glad that's another thing I don't have to worry about.

Man, I'm late with this one. By now since there's 568 responses, I hope it gets noticed. I'll be a weenie and post it to a top response.

If your clients are just looking for something to check email, web access and are willing to save in .txt they should get a Psion 5mx. I've done plenty of research on this because that's what I need for my trip round the world. They run off AA batteries which last 20-30 hours.

But of course, it's not the newest and latest, and the screen is black and white. But if your clients are geeks, there is a linux version of it.

Good retailer of refurbished ones. Linux version.

If anyone buys one, please mention my name: Dave Smith. I'm riding a small motorcycle round the world and Paul at Psionflexi has been really helpful.

You want to read where NASA is going, probably alread is, read They Shall Have Stars by James Blish ( a Star Trek author), part of the fantastic Cities in Flight series. Incidentally, Blish was also one of the people who wrote the books based on the Star Trek TV series.

And with star endorsement.

• Makes me wonder if forests also act like this as well ... forests are very old, in fact the rainforests of Australia have existed since well before the breakup of Gondwana and are probably 100 million years old and trees do signal one another via chemical messages I recall.

That's a very humanistic position, which suggests that homo sapiens' mental capabilities separate us from the rest of the planet. You're saying that the whole enterprise of linking human destiny with the ecological structure of Gaia [or whatever name you give the "vast, self regulating system" that we live inside of] is annoying to you, as it diminishes us and is out of touch with the people.

Here's a clue: people saying 'save the planet' are doing several things: 1) referring to the ecosphere as it is, not just a playground for hominids, 2) pointing out that ecology is an interconnected web with unforseen dependencies, 3) pointing out that our survival as a species may depend on us curbing our global practice of extinction, 4) stating that our humanistic rise above our environment's demands is a liability when it comes to understanding all that, so humanism needs adjustment.

Better to die on my feet than live on my knees, as the saying goes, and for those connected to a natural environment, a diminished ecosphere is an oppression. In many senses, saving the planet = saving ourselves.

The OP is reffering to the Gaia Theroy, first laid out by James Lovelock at NASA. A write up is here Executive Sumurary;
The earths ecosystem, through it's massive network of interrelationships, exhibits behaviour similar to an organisim in maintaining itself. ie; less CO2 = more UV= alge blooms = more CO2.

Hang on, a blue cat ? Surely that was stolen from the Magic Roundabaout....