fayfreethinkers.com

Barbara Fitzpatrick wrote:So far all I've seen just shows increased cell phone use correlates with decreased sperm production - not anything (viable anyway) to say causation.

Pun alert!

Main Entry: vi·a·ble
1 : capable of living; especially : having attained such form and development as to be normally capable of surviving outside the mother's womb <a viable fetus>
2 : capable of growing or developing <viable seeds> <viable eggs>

Sorry about that. I hate to blow your opinion of my intelligence, but I didn't notice when I wrote that.

I didn't figure anybody would notice; that's why I pointed it out.

WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 22 Dec 06 Washington, DC

1. IMMACULATE CONCEPTION: NATURE FINDS A WAY TO GET THE JOB DONE.
In the quaint euphemism of the Authorized Version of the Bible,
no male had "known" Flora, a female Komodo dragon, before she
laid her clutch of 8 eggs at the Chester Zoo in England. The
genetics of self-fertilization in lizards dictates that the
hatchlings will all be male. Claims of human parthenogenesis are
frequently advanced at this time of year, but confirmation has
been lacking. By some weird coincidence the eggs are expected to
hatch about Christmas.

2. EVOLUTION OF COBB COUNTY: WARNING STICKERS ARE GONE FOR GOOD.
Five years ago the school board in Cobb County, GA put stickers
on science textbooks warning that "evolution is just a theory,"
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN02/wn062702.html . The legal
battle opposing the stickers was led by Americans United for
Separation Church and State, with the help of the same team that
defeated the Philistines last year in Dover, PA. In a consent
decree signed on Tuesday, the School Board agreed never to use a
similar sticker or undermine the teaching of evolution in science
class. In a separate agreement the School District agreed to pay
a substantial portion of the plaintiff's legal fees. That more
than anything else will discourage similar actions elsewhere.

3. LEAKS: GOVERNMENT BACKS DOWN FROM MISUSE OF SUBPOENA POWER.
Last week WN commented on the government's curious use of a grand
jury subpoena to force the ACLU to turn over a classified
document. The subpoena has since been withdrawn and the totally
innocuous document declassified. What's not a secret is that the
overwhelming use of classification is to hide mistakes. Secrets
are as incompatible with democracy as they are with science.

4. ANTHRAX VACCINE: GOVERNMENT CANCELS ITS CONTRACT WITH VACGEN.
WN wagered last week that the government would bail VacGen out of
its $877M contract to supply 75 million doses of a modern anthrax
vaccine. Instead, they terminated it. The FDA put clinical
trials on hold over concerns about the vaccine's stability. This
was largest component of the Bush Administration's $5.6B Project
BioShield to build a stockpile of modern vaccines and drugs to
counter a terrorist attack, which is now in a shambles.

5. FLOODS: AUTOMATIC DECLASSIFICATION OF 25 YEAR-OLD SECRETS.
Midnight on Dec. 31 hundreds of millions of documents will be
automatically declassified under a law President Clinton signed.
The Everest of classified documents grew faster under Bush who
set out to reclassify everything that had been declassified.
Some are surprised that Bush didn't use his national security
powers to block the law. No need. Mt. Classified has become
unscalable. It passed the critical point beyond which there is
no mathematical possibility of extracting information.

Item 1 - the genetics of self-fertilization in human results in females (sterile females). Could explain why jesus supposedly never married or had children.

Item 4 - know ANY of the "projects" of the Bush Administration that isn't in shambles (except the diverting of American tax dollars into the pockets of Bush family cronies)?

WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 5 Jan 07 Washington, DC

1. THE JUNKMAN: EXXON USES MILLOY TO DOWNPLAY GLOBAL WARMING.
The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report on Wednesday
describing Exxon Mobil's efforts to manipulate public opinion on
Global Warming. In doing so the report further exposes the role
of Steven J. Milloy, the notorious "Junkman" who wrote Junk
Science Judo (CATO, 2001), and a column for Fox News. WN
reported a year ago that Milloy, who masquerades as a fearless
debunker of bad science, in real life works for oil and tobacco
giants...
See:
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN06/wn020306.html

2. AGE: DOES THE PARK SERVICE KNOW HOW OLD THE GRAND CANYON IS?
Somewhere between six thousand and six million years is as close
as they can come. The six million year figure comes from adding
up the ages of the geologic strata exposed on the canyon walls.
You get six thousand years by adding up the "begats" in the Old
Testament until you get back to Noah. So which is it? Three
years ago, bookstores in Grand Canyon National Park began selling
"Grand Canyon: A Different View," approved by the Park Service.
The book explains that runoff from Noah's flood carved the canyon
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN04/wn010204.html . A promised
review of whether the book should be sold in the Park stalled
"over issues of church and state." Whoa! Geology is not church
or state, it's science. Mary Bomar, Director of the National
Park Service since October, should be called on to keep this
silly religious tract out of National Park bookstores.

3. VALUES: SO WHAT DOES THE CONSTITUTION SAY ABOUT TAKING OATHS?
The new Congress began on a note of monumental unimportance: the
first Muslim elected to Congress, Keith Ellison, took the oath of
office on the Koran (or is it Quran). The person who acquitted
himself professionally was the rare-books librarian at the
Library of Congress, Mark Dimunation, who came up with Thomas
Jefferson's personal copy of the Koran for Ellison to use. Rep.
Goode (R-VA) objected that an oath on the Koran would violate
"traditional American values." The Constitution requires an
"oath or affirmation" from the President, but two presidents,
Hoover and Pierce, chose to affirm rather than swear. "Swear not
at all," Jesus said. "Yes should mean yes, no should mean no."

4. TERRORISM 2007: PAT ROBERTSON HAS BEEN TALKING TO GOD AGAIN.
During a recent prayer retreat, God told him that a terrorist
attack on the U.S. late in 2007 will result in a "mass killing".
Robertson relayed God's message to "The 700 Club" on Tuesday.
"The Lord didn't say nuclear, but I do believe it will be
something like that." "I have a relatively good track record,"
he said. "Sometimes I miss." It's not clear whether God
mumbles, or Robertson takes poor notes, but maybe in the future
he could take along a recorder. He once asked God to unleash
hurricanes on sinful Florida, but if sin leads to hurricanes,
Florida has been sinful since they began keeping weather records.

WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 12 Jan 07 Washington, DC

1. CULTURE WAR I: BUSH PROMISES TO VETO STEM CELL RESEARCH BILL.
The first science legislation of the new Congress passed the
House easily and will pass the Senate overwhelmingly. However,
the House vote was 37 short of the margin needed to override a
veto. Last year Bush vetoed the bill and promises to do so
again. The bill lifts the President's ban on using leftover stem
cells from fertility clinics in research. The White House points
to a study at Wake Forest that found stem cells in the amniotic
fluid of pregnant women, but Anthony Atala, author of the study,
warned that amniotic stem cells are no substitute for embryonic
stem cells. A Presidential veto will spare leftover embryonic
stem cells from the indignity of saving human lives and allow
them to be thrown in the garbage with their dignity intact.

2. CULTURE WAR II: MORE TROOPS NEEDED TO QUEL SECTARIAN VIOLENCE.
The "new strategy" for Iraq, which the President outlined on
Wednesday, is the oldest strategy ever devised: double your bet.
It doesn't always work. The problem, the President explained, is
sectarian violence. Why, you may be asking, can't Shiites and
Sunnis just get along? Briefly: the violence began in 656, 24
years after Muhammad died. Sunnis insist that the heirs of the
four caliphs that succeeded Mohammed are the legitimate leaders
of Muslims. Shiites are equally certain that only the heirs of
the fourth caliph are legitimate successors of Mohammed. And
then there's the business of the Madhi: Sunnis say he hasn't
shown up yet, Shiites say he's in hiding, but he's coming back.
Sound familiar? President Bush is absolutely right, there aren't
enough troops in Iraq to settle this dispute. And never will be.
(snip...)

3. CULTURE WAR IV: NANCY PELOSI BANS SMOKING IN THE HOUSE LOBBY.
Cultures can be changed after all. I would not have believed it
possible that smoking would become an anachronism in my lifetime.

4. HIGGS LIGHT: MAYBE THE TEVATRON STILL HAS SHOT AT IT.
Justification for building a Supercollider was based on the hope
of finding the Higgs boson, if it exists. After the SSC died,
hope turned to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and just maybe
to the less powerful Tevatron at Fermilab. The LHC is expected
to start up by the end of 2007, but meanwhile a new estimate of
the Higgs mass comes out a little smaller, raising hope that the
Tevatron might yet find it.

WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 23 Feb 07 Washington, DC

1. OF PANDERING AND PEOPLE: WHO WILL CAPTURE THE CREATIONISTS?
Even as these words are being turned into electrons, Senator John
McCain is in Seattle delivering the keynote luncheon speech to
the Discovery Institute. Eighteen months ago, just as the Dover
School Board trial involving "intelligent design" was about to
start, McCain came out in favor of teaching "all points of view,"
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN05/wn090205.html . We have no
idea what he is saying now, but it doesn't really matter; McCain
is a master at the art of changing positions between breakfast
and lunch. Apparently, however, he has decided, for the moment,
to challenge Sam Brownback for the support of creationists.

2. POWER OF PRAYER: AUTHOR OF COLUMBIA STUDY COMMITS PLAGIARISM.
More than five years ago WN called attention to a paper in the
Journal of Reproductive Medicine in which researchers at Columbia
claimed prayers doubled the success of in-vitro fertilization
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN01/wn100501.html . If total
strangers on their knees halfway around the world could suspend
the laws of nature, it would be the end of science. WN suggested
we pray the study is wrong. Behold! Our prayers were answered:
The lead author took his name off the paper and resigned as chair
of gynecology; another author landed in prison on an unrelated
fraud conviction. The editor of JRM still refused to retract the
article. This week, the remaining author, a businessman who owns
fertility clinics in Los Angeles and Seoul, was charged by the
editor of Fertility and Sterility with plagiarizing the work of a
student in Korea on a different paper. The avenging angel was
Bruce Flamm, M.D., UC Irvine, who has hounded the authors,
Columbia, and JRM relentlessly since the paper was published.

3. "BLIND FAITH: THE UNHOLY ALLIANCE OF RELIGION AND MEDICINE"
Ironically, even as the fraudulent prayer study was going on in
the Columbia medical school, a professor of behavioral medicine
at Columbia, Richard Sloan, wrote an important book condemning
those who pander to a superstitious public by claiming to show
that religion is good for your health (St. Martin's Press, 2006).

4. MOONSHINE: IT GETS A BOOST FROM DR. W IN A WHITE LAB COAT.
Newspapers today carried pictures of President Bush visiting a
Novozymes laboratory in North Carolina, which is developing
enzymes to make cellulosic ethanol. Squinting at a flask, the
President exclaimed, "So this is like a distillery!" He seemed
to acknowledge that ethanol from corn can never fill the need.

5. PASCAL'S WAGER: UK HIRED PSYCHICS TO FIND OSAMA BIN LADEN.
The Daily Mail has obtained a 2002 Ministry of Defense report.
Because of the "high value" of finding Bin Laden, MoD resorted to
the use of "novices" when "known psychics" refused.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.
Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
University of Maryland, but they should be.
---
Archives of What's New can be found at http://www.bobpark.org

WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 2 Mar 07 Washington, DC

1. FIRST AMENDMENT: HIGH COURT TAKES ON FAITH-BASED INITIATIVES.
Early in his presidency, George W. Bush issued an executive order
creating a White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives that
gives billions of dollars to religious groups of its choosing
without oversight. No politician dares to challenge it, but a
group of atheists who pay taxes sued in federal court, arguing
that it violated the "establishment clause" of the 1st Amendment.
An appeals court ruled that the case can go forward. However,
the White House director short circuited the process by asking
the Supreme Court, stacked with conservatives, to weigh in. The
issue is whether taxpayers have standing under the establishment
clause to challenge the way the executive branch uses money
appropriated by Congress. The Court heard oral arguments this
week and is expected to rule before adjourning for the summer.

2. NASA EXPLORATION: THE ROBOTIC MISSIONS ARE GOING JUST FINE.
The speedy New Horizons probe has gotten a boost from Jupiter on
its way to Pluto. As it left Jupiter yesterday, the Long Range
Reconnaissance Imager on board New Horizons took a spectacular
picture of the plume from the Tvashtar volcano on Io. The plume
was discovered by Hubble just two weeks ago.

3. THE OTHER NASA: RETHINKING THE VALUE OF HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT.
The arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak on charges of planning to
kidnap and murder a romantic rival raised questions about plans
for dealing with instability in space. The Associated Press
obtained NASA's written procedure. It calls for binding wrists
and ankles with duct tape, tying down with bungee cords and
injection with tranquillizers. Meanwhile, fuel is being removed
from the shuttle before sending it back to the garage to repair
damage from a hail storm, delaying launch until at least the end
of April. The shuttle is expected to retire in 2010, "if a tree
don't fall on it" first, as the song goes. A replacement won't
be ready before 2005. Budget cuts are likely to delay plans for
a new manned spacecraft to replace the shuttle to at least 2015.
Inevitably, it raises questions the value of humans in space.

4. SUPERSTITION: MAYBE, "THE LOST TOMB OF A GUY NAMED JESUS"?
The documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," airs on the Discovery
Channel, Sunday. It claims to have found a tomb in Jerusalem that
held the remains of Jesus, his wife Mary Magdalene, their son
Judah, his mother Mary, and assorted other family members.
Coming just before Easter, it outraged the faithful who point out
it couldn't be the same guy, that one ascended bodily into
heaven. The War Between Religion and Science, ignited by the
Intelligent Design movement, is heating up. According a front
page story in today's Weekend Journal section of the Wall Street
Journal, it's now generational. The story says that the new
thing in adolescent rebellion is to be excessively devout,
driving liberated parents nuts.

WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 2 Feb 07 Washington, DC

1. THE LIMITS OF GROWTH: IT'S TIME TO REVISIT THE 1972 CLASSIC.
The somber warnings of Dennis Meadows and his colleagues at MIT,
35 years ago, were spot on. Depletion of Earth's resources and
destruction of the environment, Meadows warned, will lead to
disaster unless nations of the world adopt policies of austerity
and population control. Technological optimists were horrified
by this negative thinking. Their alternative was "The High
Frontier," a 1976 book by Gerard K. O'Neill of Princeton, calling
for building "islands in space" to offload excess population.
Reality is the ISS. It houses 3 Earthlings at a cost of $100B.

2. PARIS: THE IPCC REPORT ISSUED TODAY IS ALREADY OUT OF DATE.
Even as 600 climate scientists were meeting this week to update
the IPCC report on climate, the Zurich-based World Glacier
Monitoring Service reported that the rate of mountain glacier
melt is accelerating. The IPCC report, however, does not
incorporate data published after 2005. The IPCC report puts the
probability at 90% that human activity is responsible for the
observed warming, up from 66% in 2001. It's higher. The report
refrains from recommending what actions governments should take.

3. WASHINGTON: THE ADMINISTRATION SUPPRESSES CLIMATE FINDINGS.
On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee, Chaired by Henry
Waxman (D-CA), looked into accusations that the administration
interfered in federal climate research. Bipartisan criticism of
the White House stance on climate was prompted by a survey
conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists, together with the
Government Accountability Project, which turned up hundreds of
government climate scientists who had experienced political
interference in communicating their findings. Whenever WN cites
a Union of Concerned Scientists report, there are complaints that
UCS is an advocacy group, and so it is. WN would prefer that the
government police itself. While we're waiting, WN will continue
to look to UCS to give us the facts. They do it very well.

4. IRVING, TEXAS: EXXON MOBIL REPORTS RECORD PROFIT FOR 2006.
Yesterday, Exxon Mobil announced 2006 profits of $40 billion, its
second consecutive annual record. It's also the largest profit
ever reported by an American company. If you're that profitable,
you can bribe journalist to downplay the importance of global
warming, http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN07/wn010507.html .

5. THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE: WHY DOESN'T THE WORLD LIMIT POPULATION?
Any program that conserves energy, or protects the environment,
or feeds the hungry, or cures disease, will be quickly overtaken
by population growth. Simple greed is certainly a factor in
opposing population limits, but the fundamental obstacle is
fundamental religion. "Be fruitful and multiply," Genesis 1:28,
is seen by many as a commandment.

WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 6 Apr 07 Washington, DC

1. LHC TEST: IT WASN'T THE "BIG BANG" THEY WERE LOOKING FOR.
Intoxicated by the enthusiasm of its builders, WN predicted last
week that protons would circulate in the Large Hadron Collider on
schedule. Alas, a Fermilab-built quadrupole magnet failed a high-
pressure test with a dramatic bang. That's what tests are for.
To the chagrin of Fermilab, it was a simple design flaw. The
magnet will have to be brought to the surface, but there is
optimism that the 23 other magnets like it can be retrofitted in
place. The LHC may be able to get back on schedule, but the
traditional 3-month winter shutdown may have to be sacrificed.

2. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: THE COURT SOARS INTO THE ATMOSPHERE.
Still one vote short of a rubber stamp, the Supreme Court on
Monday rebuked the Bush Administration for refusing to regulate
greenhouse gases. It ruled 5-4 that the EPA must either begin
regulating CO2 as an atmospheric pollutant, or declare that CO2
does not threaten humans, which EPA's own scientists dispute.
The ruling effectively forces EPA to begin regulating tailpipe
emissions, whether it likes it or not. Over the years, federal
courts have sided with the consensus view of science on issues
ranging from perpetual motion to creationism and pseudoscience,
but any more appointments by Bush could change that.

3. CLIMATE CHANGE: BLEAK IPCC REPORT RELEASED TODAY IN BRUSSELS.
Two months ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change put
the odds that global warming is anthropogenic as "90% certain"
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN07/wn020207.html . The report
released today is titled Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability.
Science Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN)says it provides us
with "even higher confidence" of warming. However, Ralph Hall
(R-TX), ranking Republican on the Committee, says the new report
"illustrates more uncertainty in the scientific community."
Hmmm. It was Ralph Hall, you may recall, who supported building
the Space Station because he thought it would "find a cure for
cancer" http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN07/wn020207.html .

4. RUNNING IN PLACE: CAN AN ASTRONAUT FIND A CURE FOR NASA HYPE?
Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams plans to run the Boston
Marathon on board the ISS. She's been training on the treadmill
at least 4 times a week for months. Is that good? I don't know.
It's not as if she has anything better to do on the ISS.

5. GOD AND SCIENCE: THE SEARCH FOR MEANING IN THE NATURAL WORLD.
We got some angry e-mail this week about the line "Better a God
particle than a God." A gratuitous slap in the face of people of
faith? Not meant to be, but all of science is built on territory
once occupied by gods. Is there some boundary at which science
is supposed to stop? Keep the letters coming. We read them all,
and answer as many as we can.

WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 13 Apr 07 Washington, DC

1. STEM CELLS: PRESIDENT BUSH VOWS TO PROTECT ONE-CELLED PEOPLE.
The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act passed the Senate 63-34,
but President Bush promises a veto. He said the use of embryonic
stem cells in research "crosses a moral line." In case you're
wondering where this "moral line" is drawn, WN has looked into
it. George W. Bush and other conservative theologians believe a
"soul" is assigned to the fertilized egg at the instant of
conception. That makes it a person, even though it's not counted
in the census. In-vitro fertilization makes a lot more of these
one-celled people than it needs; leftovers are stacked in the
freezer until it starts filling up. President Bush cares deeply
about these helpless one-celled people and wants to ensure they
are properly flushed down the disposal rather than exploited by
godless scientists interested only in the reduction of suffering.

2. DIABETES: STEM CELL THERAPY IS USED TO TREAT TYPE 1 DIABETES.
In yesterday's Wash Post, Sen. Orin Hatch (R-UT), a long-time
proponent of stem cell research, is quoted as saying, "Our
country is in grave danger of falling behind in one of the most
promising fields of biomedical research." We already have. In a
very preliminary study, researchers at the University of Sao
Paolo in Brazil found that a remarkable 14 out of 15 type 1
diabetes sufferers were freed of dependence on insulin injections
after treatment with stem cells drawn from their own blood.

3. SHUTTLE: SETTING A NEW AMERICAN RECORD FOR FLAG-POLE SITTING.
By delaying the launch of the hail-dinged shuttle Atlantis until
June, NASA has given Astronaut Sunita Williams a shot at the
coveted American record for continuous time in space. The record
will be set by Michael Lopez-Alegria next week when he returns to
Earth on the Russian Soyuz. The delay didn't bother Williams,
who told reporters, "I have lots to do up here." Maybe she could
run another marathon. But how do you run in zero-g anyway?

4. "NOR ANY DROP TO DRINK": SIGNS OF WATER ON EXTRA-SOLAR PLANET.
There's not likely to be a beach, and its 150 light-years away,
but Hubble measurements of a star named HD 209458b have been
interpreted as evidence of water in the atmosphere of a planet
that passes in front of the "Sun-like" star every 3.6 days. The
real significance is the possibility of someday being able to
study the atmospheres of extra-solar planets for signs of life.

5. GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE: COOLING DOWN THE IPCC WARMING REPORT.
The assessment of the impact of global warming issued by the IPCC
last Friday, grim though it was, had actually been toned down in
the final negotiations in Brussels at the insistence of the U.S.
and China. According to the NY Times, Bush's top environmental
advisor told reporters that the report "reinforces" the policies
of the administration. Without population control measures,
however, no other policies will help in the long run.

WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 20 Apr 07 Washington, DC

1. BIGELOW SPACE STATIONS: BUDGET SUITES IN LOW-EARTH ORBIT.
"Space is just another place to do business," they used to say in
the Reagan White House. What business, you might ask? The
latest venture in space is Bigelow Aerospace, which revealed its
plans last week at the National Space Symposium in Colorado
Springs. Robert Bigelow, the founder and president of Bigelow
Aerospace, intends to have three manned outposts, assembled from
inflatable modules, in low-Earth orbit by 2015. Bigelow is also
the owner of Budget Suites of America, a hotel chain, but he'll
leave space tourism to the ISS. Bigelow is courting two markets:
foreign space agencies that don't have access to a space station,
and multinational corporations that want to get into micro-
gravity research. That was the fatal miscalculation of previous
space station programs: industry couldn't find anything worth
doing in micro-gravity. So, is this crazy? Decide for yourself:
Robert Bigelow also founded the National Institute of Discovery
Science in Las Vegas, a secretive research group with links to
the Pentagon that focuses on alien abductions and the paranormal.

2. SEX EDUCATION: ABSTINENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER.
Students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just
as likely to have sex as those who did not, according to a study
ordered by Congress. Nor did they have fewer sex partners, or
wait longer to become sexually active. The report, released late
last Friday, comes just after the abrupt resignation of Dr. Eric
Keroack, an anti-birth control zealot, appointed by Bush just
four months ago to head the Office of Population Affairs of the
Department of Health and Human Services. A non-board-certified
gynecologist/obstetrician who operates six Christian anti-
abortion centers in Massachusetts, Keroack had been notified of a
state investigation into his private practice.

3. STUDENT LOANS: EVEN HIGHER EDUCATION HAS SUCCUMBED TO BRIBERY.
In 1994, Congress established a program of direct student loans
at lower interest rates. Bank of America and Citibank, the
biggest banks in the student loan business, lavished millions in
bribes on colleges and universities to get them to drop out of
the federal program. The banks were led to the trough by Sallie
Mae, the largest private student lender. Sallie Mae began as a
quasi-governmental agency in 1972, but began privatizing 10 years
ago. This week Sallie Mae announced it is selling itself and
will become will become fully private. The CEO will walk away
from the deal with about $257 million, while 10 million students
will graduate with debts that average nearly $20,000.

4. MISTAKES: READERS TELL US WN HAS BEEN GETTING A LITTLE SLOPPY.
Everyone in the APS Washington Office used to stop what they were
doing late Friday to proof WN. We are now making the transition
from APS to UMD, however, and "we" now means "me." We will try
to be more careful, but mystakes are possible.

WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 27 Apr 07

1. THE HABITABLE ZONE: THE GOOD NEWS IS THEY’RE NOT COMING HERE.
Humans, fragile self-replicating chemical factories, are trapped on a tiny
planet for a few dozen orbits about an undistinguished star among countless other stars in one of billions of galaxies. And yet, these insignificant specks have the audacity to imagine they can figure it all out - and maybe they can. The most compelling scientific quest is to find life to which Earthlings are not related. The first great discovery of this Century was to confirm that other stars have planets - lots of them. This week European astronomers found a planet in the habitable zone of Gliese 581, a red dwarf in the constellation Libra. The public was thrilled. We can learn a lot from here, and it’s going to be exciting. Each year I ask my class of freshman physics majors if they think humans will visit
another star someday. Most say yes, so we take a few minutes of each class to plan the mission. What’s the closest star? How long are you
prepared to travel? How big will the spaceship have to be? How will you pass the time? Anyway, we’ll be able to travel much faster some day, so maybe 50 years. There’s always one that insists there’s gotta be a
basketball court. Near the end of the semester they calculate the kinetic energy of the spacecraft to make the trip in 50 years. Hmmm, the velocity is squared. Maybe, they conclude, we could just find a way to exchange e-mails.

2. WARHEADS: THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT NUCLEAR STOCKPILES ARE AGING.
It was just five years ago that the Nuclear Posture Review, was leaked http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN02/wn031502.html . It was a Pentagon report calling for development of a new class of small nuclear weapons to blur the distinction between nuclear and conventional weapons. Public exposure killed the plan. But Dr. Strangelove never gives up. The Bush administration is again pushing for a new generation of nuclear weapons; this time it’s the Reliable Replacement Warhead, an idea that’s been around for 30 years. In fact, having spent billions on a Science-Based Stockpile Stewardship Program, there’s no need for the RRW. U.S. warheads will retain their capability for another century.

3. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: IRAQ NO LONGER POSES A NUCLEAR THREAT.
We invaded Iraq because of their weapons of mass destruction. It worked perfectly. Iraq hasn’t had a nuclear weapon since. But now we learn that there’s a nuclear threat brewing across the border in Iran. Unfortunately, our troops are sort of tied up. We need more missile defense sites like the ones we built in Alaska and California to deal with the missile threat from North Korea. Of course that missile defense is still being tested and we don’t actually turn it on, but we think we could. It worked anyway. North Korea still doesn’t have a missile, or a warhead. To take care of the Iran threat we want to install missile defenses in Eastern Europe like the one that doesn’t work in Alaska.

WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 11 May 07 Washington, DC

1. MISSILE DEFENSE BUDGET: CONGRESS BALKS AT SILOS IN POLAND.
The Bush administration wants to install 10 interceptors in Poland and tracking radar in the Czech Republic – like the type of system that doesn’t work in Alaska. Congress is unlikely to provide the money. The Safeguard ABM system was abandoned, the Strategic Defense Initiative was stillborn, and Bush’s National Missile Defense is turned off. Ballistic missiles are easier to make than to stop. The only meaningful defense has always been the threat of retaliation. But a chilling article in today’s NY Times asks “retaliation against whom?” Missiles carry a return address. Bombs carried in by terrorists do not.

2. SCIENCE BUDGET: MAYBE WE COULD PRIVATIZE THE WAR IN IRAQ.
At the annual AAAS Science and Technology Forum last week, one-time physicist Jack Marburger, told science policy wonks that prospects for increased science funding are poor. Marburger observed that science has been held to a constant slice of the federal pie for the past 40 years, and he says it’s not going to change now. He cited “competing societal
priorities,” by which he must mean the war in Iraq. “New researchers will either find new ways to fund their work, or they will leave the field.”

3. NASA BUDGET: CLIMATE EXPERTS WARN THAT EARTH IS GOING BLIND.
Seventeen years ago, Dan Goldin, then head of NASA, pushed hard for a major effort, called Mission to Planet Earth, to monitor changes in Earth’s environment from space. The head of the Space Subcommittee, Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), hated the idea, and transferred funding to the Space Station http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN97/wn111497.html . I recalled the episode when I read an op-ed in Wednesday’s Washington Post in which the heads of the three top climate/oceanographic labs warn that the shift of NASA funding to Moon/Mars is threatening observations of our own planet at a very critical time.

4. BELIEFS: SCIENTIFIC ILLITERACY REACHES CLEAR TO THE TOP.
Last week at the Republican presidential debate, moderator Chris Matthews asked whether any of the wannabes did not believe in evolution. Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee and Tom Tancredo raised their hands. John McCain waffled: “I believe in evolution, “he said, “but I also believe when I hike the Grand Canyon that the hand of God is there also.” The Sunday Washington Post pointed out that they weren’t that far from mainstream. In an ABC poll a year ago, 61% thought Genesis is literally true.

WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 18 May 07 Washington, DC

1. DOE POLYGRAPH PROGRAM: COUNTER INTELLIGENCE TAKEN LITERALLY.
A 30 Apr 07 memo notified Los Alamos employees that random polygraph tests of 8,000 personnel in high-risk categories will be conducted by the DOE as part of a new counter-intelligence program. Three years ago, a National Academy of Sciences study done at the request of the DOE, The Polygraph and Lie Detection, http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN03/wn041803.html concluded that the high incidence of false positives made the polygraph worse than useless. Nothing indicates it will work any better for randomly chosen personnel. The polygraph, in fact, has ruined careers, but never uncovered a single spy. If you have an orgasm while being tested and lie about it, the operator can probably tell. For anything else, it’s a coin toss.

3. INTELLIGENT DESIGN: CREATIONIST ASTRONOMER DENIED TENURE.
Guillermo Gonzalez was denied tenure at Iowa State University. The Discovery Institute was shocked at this blatant disregard of the cherished
principle of “viewpoint diversity.” With Jay Richards, a theologian, Gonzalez wrote The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery. It’s a daffy twist on the anthropic principle, which was already daffy enough. The simple fact is that his colleagues voted him off the island. It’s not like he was tenured and then fired.

4. TENURE: IT DOES NOT GUARANTEE YOU’LL BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.
Something happens to scientists who think too much about the anthropic principle. Frank Tipler and John Barrow wrote The Anthropic Cosmological Principle in 1986. Last year it won Barrow the $1.4M Templeton Prize. Tipler probably thinks he should have gotten it in 1994 for The Physics of Immortality, but he’s not giving up. In his new book, The Physics of Christianity, out this month, Tipler equates the Holy Trinity with the cosmological singularity.

WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 1 Jun 07 Washington, DC

1. CLIMATE CHANGE: BUSH PROPOSES A NEW APPROACH - SET GOALS.
President Bush rejected the Kyoto treaty six years ago, saying it would "harm our economy." "Climate change" did not show up in Bush’s vocabulary until his 2007 State-of-the-Union address. Yesterday, however, pressured to take action, he trotted out his "new international climate change framework," declaring "the United States takes this issue seriously." Other leaders at next week’s G-8 summit, who are leaning toward a bold German plan to reduce greenhouse emissions 50% by 2050, are unlikely to be impressed. The plan outlined by the White House is classic Bush: it contained no concrete targets or dates, no enforcement mechanism, no penalties for noncompliance, and it wouldn’t take effect until four years after Bush leaves office.

2. WHAT CLIMATE PROBLEM? NASA HEAD IS ON A DIFFERENT PLANET.
Just two hours before the President’s remarks, Michael Griffin, the man Bush picked to head the agency charged with collecting climate change data, was interviewed on National Public Radio. He defended cuts in programs to monitor climate change: It frees resources for a manned moon base, and a new crew transportation vehicle to take astronauts to the Moon, Mars and the space station. He saw no need to take action against global warming. "Who has the privilege of deciding that this is the best climate for all other human beings," he asked? Just two months ago the IPCC report detailed the enormous cost of global warming on human life. Where has he been?

3. BELIEFS: BROWNBACK DEFENDS SCIENTIFIC ILLITERACY BY EXAMPLE.
A month ago at the Republican Presidential debate, there was a show of hands of those who don’t believe in evolution. One who raised his hand, Sam Brownback, was moved to explain why in yesterday’s New York Times: "I believe wholeheartedly that there cannot be any contradiction between faith and reason." Which faith does he have in mind? Different faiths are often at war with each other, but no wars are fought over science. Science relies on Nature as the sole arbiter. There was much more, all in the language of the intelligent design movement, including the substitution of "materialism" for "naturalism."

4. ANTIMISSILE TEST: LAST WEEK’S TEST WAS VERY REALISTIC.
The target missile never got off the ground. After all, what rogue nation, even one as nutty as N. Korea, would launch a missile at the dominant nuclear power? The return address is on the package. The nuclear threat today is from weapons in cargo containers, or assembled in a target country.

W's plan is to do exactly what his daddy did - say there isn't enough research and call for more study before doing anything.

WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 7 Jun 07 Washington, DC

1. IRAQ: TO WHAT PROBLEM IS THE TROOP SURGE A SOLUTION? The news this week was dominated by stories about non-solutions to non-existent problems. At his confirmation hearing yesterday, General Lute the new war czar, told the Senate that unless there is political reform, violence will rage for another year regardless of a troop build up.

2. IRAN: DO WE NEED ANTIMISSILE DEFENSES IN EASTERN EUROPE?
Iran is pushing forward with enriching uranium. What will we do about it? Install antimissile sites in Poland and radars in the Czech Republic. Putin is offering the giant radar in Azerbaijan, but he notes that Iran doesn't have a missile. No matter, we don't have a defense.

3. MEXICO: "SOMETHING THERE IS THAT DOESN'T LOVE A WALL."
The bipartisan immigration reform bill failed in the Senate in the early morning hours today. Other "Great" walls have not worked well. "Before I built a wall," Frost wrote, "I'd ask what I was walling in or walling out."

4. SPACE: WHY FINISH THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION?
With an astronaut love triangle and shuttle problems, it hasn't been a great year for the ISS, but then, there has never been a great year for the orbiting boondoggle. Atlantis is again set for launch at 7:38 pm ET today. NASA must complete the ISS so it can be dropped into the ocean on schedule in finished form.

5. STEM CELLS: POSSIBLE NEW SOURCE OF EMBRIONIC-LIKE CELLS?
Nature yesterday described a brilliant gene transfer method of reprogramming fetal mouse cells to be indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells. Many mouse cures haven't carried over to humans. What is sad is that it should be necessary to take this route. A vast trove of embryonic stem cells in fertility clinics will be autoclaved to satisfy superstitious beliefs.

6. PASSAGE: STEPHEN E. STRAUS, 60, DIED OF BRAIN CANCER. The first director of the National Center of Complementary and Alternative Medicine at NIH, his task was to turn the quack-dominated Office of Alternative Medicine, created by Congress, into a scientific center. He did it with grace, the only way possible, subjecting one quack cure after another to randomized double-blind tests, while enduring attacks from scientists who thought he moved too slowly. One after another all failed. Anything else would have invited interference from Congress. I was fortunate to serve on his Steering Committee.

WHAT’S NEW

Robert L. Park Friday, 6 Jul 07 Washington, DC

1. SCIENCE ADVICE THEN: EISENHOWER, SCIENTISTS AND SPUTNIK.
In a feature article in the June issue of Physics Today, John Rigden tells the story of President Eisenhower convening a meeting of scientists in the wake of Sputnik that opened a new chapter in the relationship between science and government. That was 50-years ago. In those 50 years, led by the U.S., homo sapiens learned more about the laws of nature than in the previous 50,000 years. But the U.S. is now falling behind.

2. SCIENCE ADVICE NOW: GEORGE W. BUSH IS LOOKING FOR ANSWERS.
A front-page story by Peter Brown in the Washington Post on Monday says the meetings are never listed on the president’s public schedule, and remain unknown to many on his staff, but Bush is summoning "leading authors, historians, philosophers and theologians to the White House."
He is searching for answers to the collapse of his presidency but scientists were not consulted. Perhaps it was an oversight by the writer, but it may explain the number of terminally stupid Bush programs that could have been averted by checking with freshman science students. They could have told him:

1) Not even Dick Cheney can break The First Law of Thermodynamics
- hydrogen is not an energy source and for that matter neither is corn
ethanol.

2) Ballistic missiles are easier to make than they are to stop.

3) Because the sexual urge, even of presidents, is shaped by evolution to insure procreation - girls under 18 need access to Plan B.

4) Embryonic stem cells are not one-celled people - the "soul" is an ancient superstition with no legal standing.

3. EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS: WHY NOT ASK INFERTILITY PATIENTS?
A survey of patients at major infertility centers, reported in today’s Science, did just that. In contrast to the prevailing view, they found that only 22% would even consider donating excess frozen embryos to other couples. Most patient couples prefer that their excess embryos be used for research, and if not needed for that, simply destroyed.

4. PERPETUUM MOBILE: METHINKS ‘TIS A BIT O’ THE BLARNEY.
Yesterday, a Dublin company, Steorn, was to demonstrate its "Orbo" technology at the Kinetica Museum in London. Orbo was claimed to produce unlimited free energy - it didn’t. A year ago Steorn was recruiting scientists
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN06/wn082506.html to evaluate
Orbo, but you can’t pick the reviewers and then call it peer review.
Today Steorn blamed the air conditioning in Kinetica, and said the
demonstration will be delayed a "few weeks." Sure it will.

DAR
I checked their website. For "Technical Specifications" they give:

***
Technical Specifications

Orbo is based upon the principle of time variant magneto-mechanical interactions. The core output from our Orbo technology is mechanical. This mechanical energy can be converted into electrical energy using standard generator technology either by integrating such technology directly with Orbo or by connecting the mechanical output from Orbo to the generation technology. The efficiency of such mechanical/electrical conversions is highly dependent on the components used and is also a function of size.

Orbo technology is subject to continuous development. This development is focused on improving the manufacturability of the technology, production costs and power density. Orbo was initially developed as using stop-start mechanisms (with a power density of 0.5 Watts per cm3), Steorn is currently finalizing the development of constant motion systems and a significant improvement in power density is anticipated.
***

What a bunch of classic free energy, perpetual motion, horseshit. These guys have got to be having a good time with all the attention.

Here is a picture of the little bugger:



Wikipedia has this:

***
Sean McCarthy stated in an RTÉ radio interview that, "What we have developed is a way to construct magnetic fields so that when you travel round the magnetic fields, starting and stopping at the same position, you have gained energy... The energy isn't being converted from any other source such as the energy within the magnet. It's literally created. Once the technology operates it provides a constant stream of clean energy."[27]

In a demonstration to The Guardian at Steorn's office, a computer display reported the device to have an efficiency of 285%. The article goes on to say that Steorn claims to have measured efficiencies up to 400%.[20] The device has been reported to be an all-magnet motor, with no electromagnetic component.[28] Steorn also claims that according to its research the device can be scaled to almost any size, powering anything from a flashlight to an airplane.[29]

Steorn claims that there have been "eight independent validations of their work"[20] but, as of June 2007, none of their claims have been independently confirmed.
***