Friday, August 8, 2008
1. GAS: MIT CHEMIST INVENTS THE HYDROGEN ECONOMY.
You may recall that in his 2003 State-of-the-Union Address President George W. Bush promised energy independence with Freedom Car, (WN 31 Jan 03) , "powered by hydrogen and pollution free." He forgot to say where the hydrogen would come from. MIT chemist Daniel Nocera said last week in Science online that he has the solution: "artificial photosynthesis." Did he invent artificial photosynthesis, you ask? Not exactly, evolution "invented" photosynthesis. Nocera isn't about synthesizing anything; he wants to break up water using electric power from solar cells. So he invented solar cells? No, other people did that. Nocera wants to use solar cells to do electrolysis. Nocera invented electrolysis? Not quite, that was invented by Lavosier before his beheading in 1794; Nocera found a catalyst that he says does electrolysis better. Does it? We don't know; it hasn't been replicated. MIT says it's a "major discovery."
2. SCIENCE EDITORIAL: "SCIENCE IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES."
I recommend to everyone the important and courageous guest editorial in today's edition of Science. The author, Ismail Serageldin, is director of the Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt. The Muslim world was the cradle of rationality and tolerance when medieval Europe was mired in the dark ages. Today the Muslim world is "driven by self-appointed guardians of religious correctness," Serageldin writes. "They increasingly force dissenting voices into silence and conformity with what they consider to be acceptable behavior." He calls on the scientific and academic communities in Muslim countries to challenge accepted views. And he points out that a similar battle rages in the U.S over evolution, and I would add, over contraception, and stem cell research.
3. STEM CELLS: TIME TO BRING OUT A NEW LINE?
Remarkable progress has reportedly been made with induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) as an alternative to stem cells derived from embryos (ES). When a Japanese researcher announced two years ago that he had cultivated colonies of pluripotent cells from mouse skin cells that mimicked ES cells, it was believed it would be years before it could be done with human cells but it was done in a year, which can be taken as a measure of the pressure from a research community that is making remarkable progress. For a variety of reasons, researchers would prefer to work with new human ES lines than any of the 21 aging lines the President has approved. Both Obama and McCain have vowed to make new lines available, but why is it an issue for any president to decide?
4. LHC: START DATE IS SET FOR SEPTEMBER TENTH.
It took 14 years and $8 billion to build and will accelerate protons to 7 TeV, collide them, and examine the debris. Readers often ask what it will do for the world. It's the greatest adventure of our lives. It won't cure disease, or fight wars, or make us wealthy. We are tracing our way back through the law of cause and effect in a search for the first cause. Can we tiny specks of matter on an insignificant planet really do that?
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What's New? -- by Bob Park
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Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
Friday, August 29, 2008
1. ENVIRONMENT: THE LAST ENDANGERED SPECIES.
In the beginning there was no plan. A speck of matter, trapped on a tiny planet orbiting an undistinguished star among countless other stars in one of billions of galaxies, replicated itself. And the replicas replicated themselves. Because the replicas were not exact, endless variations called "species" appeared in every niche of the environment. Eventually, there came to be a dominant species that could push aside or eat all the other species. That would be suicide, but the dominant species is well known for its suicidal tendencies. Nevertheless, under a leader named Richard Nixon, the dominant species developed a plan called the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Pushed through during a period of extreme environmental idealism, it doesn't save many species, but it's the only weapon environmentalists have to block development. Under the Bush administration the law is simply ignored.
2. POPULATION: U.S. BIRTH RATE DOUBLES IN A CENTURY.
The dominant species, which survives by eating other species or using them for clothing and shelter, is endowed by evolution with a powerful instinct to reproduce - or at least go through the first steps in the process. Availability of the pill, however, makes it possible for women in the developed world to be in control of their own lives and achieve their potential. According to the Population Reference Bureau a record 4.3 million U.S. births were registered in 2007. ABC News says the biggest factor is immigration, Huspanic immigration in particular.
3. THE DEBATE: "SCIENCE" GETS A MENTION IN DENVER.
As the crisis in science funding grows steadily worse we look for any hint that our leaders are aware. In his inspirational acceptance speech last night Barack Obama mentioned science once. It was at the end of a list of things that government should do because we cannot do them for ourselves: "protect us from harm, and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and science and technology." It should be pointed out that everything on that list is dependent on science. This is not exactly the "Science Debate 2008" scientists hoped to have, but we take what we can get.
4. HEAVY METAL: MANY AYURVEDIC MEDICINES ARE TOXIC.
A study of 193 traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicines bought on the internet or from US stores contained high levels of lead, mercury or arsenic. The traditional medicine of India, Ayurveda, is even older than traditional Chinese medicine. Under the 1994 Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act they cannot be regulated by the FDA unless they are shown in court to be harmful. "Not until the bodies begin piling up" as one FDA official put it.
5. PERPETUUM MOBILE: THE NEWMAN "ENERGY MACHINE" AGAIN.
In Ashland, LA a weather-beaten oysterman with "practical inventiveness" has made the local papers with a car battery that runs a boat winch connected to a bicycle wheel that turns a car alternator that recharges the battery (WN 3 May 02) . It's not new. I must tell you that I invented such a machine when I was 10. It didn't work either.
http://www.bobpark.org/
1. ENVIRONMENT: THE LAST ENDANGERED SPECIES.
In the beginning there was no plan. A speck of matter, trapped on a tiny planet orbiting an undistinguished star among countless other stars in one of billions of galaxies, replicated itself. And the replicas replicated themselves. Because the replicas were not exact, endless variations called "species" appeared in every niche of the environment. Eventually, there came to be a dominant species that could push aside or eat all the other species. That would be suicide, but the dominant species is well known for its suicidal tendencies. Nevertheless, under a leader named Richard Nixon, the dominant species developed a plan called the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Pushed through during a period of extreme environmental idealism, it doesn't save many species, but it's the only weapon environmentalists have to block development. Under the Bush administration the law is simply ignored.
2. POPULATION: U.S. BIRTH RATE DOUBLES IN A CENTURY.
The dominant species, which survives by eating other species or using them for clothing and shelter, is endowed by evolution with a powerful instinct to reproduce - or at least go through the first steps in the process. Availability of the pill, however, makes it possible for women in the developed world to be in control of their own lives and achieve their potential. According to the Population Reference Bureau a record 4.3 million U.S. births were registered in 2007. ABC News says the biggest factor is immigration, Huspanic immigration in particular.
3. THE DEBATE: "SCIENCE" GETS A MENTION IN DENVER.
As the crisis in science funding grows steadily worse we look for any hint that our leaders are aware. In his inspirational acceptance speech last night Barack Obama mentioned science once. It was at the end of a list of things that government should do because we cannot do them for ourselves: "protect us from harm, and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and science and technology." It should be pointed out that everything on that list is dependent on science. This is not exactly the "Science Debate 2008" scientists hoped to have, but we take what we can get.
4. HEAVY METAL: MANY AYURVEDIC MEDICINES ARE TOXIC.
A study of 193 traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicines bought on the internet or from US stores contained high levels of lead, mercury or arsenic. The traditional medicine of India, Ayurveda, is even older than traditional Chinese medicine. Under the 1994 Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act they cannot be regulated by the FDA unless they are shown in court to be harmful. "Not until the bodies begin piling up" as one FDA official put it.
5. PERPETUUM MOBILE: THE NEWMAN "ENERGY MACHINE" AGAIN.
In Ashland, LA a weather-beaten oysterman with "practical inventiveness" has made the local papers with a car battery that runs a boat winch connected to a bicycle wheel that turns a car alternator that recharges the battery (WN 3 May 02) . It's not new. I must tell you that I invented such a machine when I was 10. It didn't work either.
http://www.bobpark.org/
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Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 07 Nov 08 Washington, DC
1. CHANGE: SCIENCE IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.
I was in the air between Washington and Seattle when the election was
decided; I learned the result from a taxi driver, an immigrant from the
republic of Georgia with children to educate. He clearly enjoyed being
the one to tell me. He had the same enthusiasm for change that I sensed
in the long line when the polls opened that morning. The agent for change
today, as always, is science, but throughout the tedious election campaign
neither camp displayed much interest in a science debate and the idea
died. But what was it we wanted to know? We already knew that neither
candidate had any background in science. We knew we didn’t need more
Freedom Cars running on hydrogen or corn ethanol. Nor do we need to
defend the human rights of stem cells, or put up with barriers to buying
Plan B, or for our children in science class to be taught "both sides" of
the creationism issue. Even less do we need old-fashioned crap like
sending human astronauts back to the Moon in an age of automation. What
we need to know is who Obama will turn to for advice. As President, he
can call on any scientist in the country, and the time to do it is right
now. We’d feel even better if Obama were to signal his intention to
elevate his science advisor to cabinet rank. We could suggest about a
thousand scientists who would do a good job, but it wouldn’t help if Obama
ignores his science advisor.
2. THE NEW OIL: A DESALINATION PLANT FOR LONDON?
Most people think London has enough water, but the city is forced to build
a desalination plant to accommodate population growth. It’s not the
fecundity of native Londoners that has risen; as in all of Europe,
immigration is on the rise with inevitable cultural conflict. Expect more
such problems around the world as the demands of the green revolution
reduce clean water, and excess population spills out of Muslim nations
that can no longer feed their people as oil revenues decline.
3. SCIENCE FRICTION: MICHAEL CRICHTON DIES AT 66.
Many of my students admit that they were drawn to science by reading
science fiction novels, and one of the authors mentioned most frequently
is Michael Crichton. I am grateful for the students he sent me, but the
irony is that his works were intensely anti-science. Consider Jurassic
Park, which was also made into a blockbuster movie. The brilliant
explanation of how the dinosaurs were cloned was the only treatment of
evolution to which many fans had ever been exposed. Perhaps that
overshadows his plot of using this great advance in science to build an
amusement park. That misuse of science was at the heart of Crichton
novels.
4. REALITY THERAPY: RICHARD DAWKINS RETIRES FROM OXFORD.
By contrast with Crichton, Richard Dawkins forces people to confront
reality. With his help a campaign has raised the money to pay for a
message on the side of buses: "There is no God. Now stop worrying and
enjoy your life." The pity is that the world sees truth as "shrill and
strident." The truth is the truth, nothing else. Retirement, of course,
does not require one to stop writing. A world without the prospect of
another book by Dawkins would a sadder place.
1. CHANGE: SCIENCE IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.
I was in the air between Washington and Seattle when the election was
decided; I learned the result from a taxi driver, an immigrant from the
republic of Georgia with children to educate. He clearly enjoyed being
the one to tell me. He had the same enthusiasm for change that I sensed
in the long line when the polls opened that morning. The agent for change
today, as always, is science, but throughout the tedious election campaign
neither camp displayed much interest in a science debate and the idea
died. But what was it we wanted to know? We already knew that neither
candidate had any background in science. We knew we didn’t need more
Freedom Cars running on hydrogen or corn ethanol. Nor do we need to
defend the human rights of stem cells, or put up with barriers to buying
Plan B, or for our children in science class to be taught "both sides" of
the creationism issue. Even less do we need old-fashioned crap like
sending human astronauts back to the Moon in an age of automation. What
we need to know is who Obama will turn to for advice. As President, he
can call on any scientist in the country, and the time to do it is right
now. We’d feel even better if Obama were to signal his intention to
elevate his science advisor to cabinet rank. We could suggest about a
thousand scientists who would do a good job, but it wouldn’t help if Obama
ignores his science advisor.
2. THE NEW OIL: A DESALINATION PLANT FOR LONDON?
Most people think London has enough water, but the city is forced to build
a desalination plant to accommodate population growth. It’s not the
fecundity of native Londoners that has risen; as in all of Europe,
immigration is on the rise with inevitable cultural conflict. Expect more
such problems around the world as the demands of the green revolution
reduce clean water, and excess population spills out of Muslim nations
that can no longer feed their people as oil revenues decline.
3. SCIENCE FRICTION: MICHAEL CRICHTON DIES AT 66.
Many of my students admit that they were drawn to science by reading
science fiction novels, and one of the authors mentioned most frequently
is Michael Crichton. I am grateful for the students he sent me, but the
irony is that his works were intensely anti-science. Consider Jurassic
Park, which was also made into a blockbuster movie. The brilliant
explanation of how the dinosaurs were cloned was the only treatment of
evolution to which many fans had ever been exposed. Perhaps that
overshadows his plot of using this great advance in science to build an
amusement park. That misuse of science was at the heart of Crichton
novels.
4. REALITY THERAPY: RICHARD DAWKINS RETIRES FROM OXFORD.
By contrast with Crichton, Richard Dawkins forces people to confront
reality. With his help a campaign has raised the money to pay for a
message on the side of buses: "There is no God. Now stop worrying and
enjoy your life." The pity is that the world sees truth as "shrill and
strident." The truth is the truth, nothing else. Retirement, of course,
does not require one to stop writing. A world without the prospect of
another book by Dawkins would a sadder place.
-
Dardedar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 8193
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- Contact:
Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 13 Feb 09 Washington, DC
1. DARWIN: HOMO SAPIENS EVOLVED IN A SAVAGE WORLD.
The oldest remains of Homo sapiens have been dated at about 160,000
years. Hunter gatherers, they could talk, but we have no way of knowing
what they said. It would be 150,000 years before the invention of
writing. We have changed little from the earliest Homo sapiens and almost
not at all since the birth of civilization; instead, we changed the
world. That may explain why barely half the population believes we
evolved over time as opposed to being created in our present form.
2. STRESSED: THE APE THAT TALKS OFTEN TELLS LIES.
This morning I fed "polygraph" into the search engine on the WN archives
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/search.html and got 42 hits going back to
1988. I said back then that, "the polygraph can’t tell a lie from the sex
act," which is still literally true. Other countries also have liars and
machines that lie about liars. Today in Science there is a news story by
Adrian Cho involving a 2007 paper in The International Journal of Speech,
Language and the Law, about a voice-analysis technique used by local
governments in the UK to weed out welfare cheats. Two Swedish
phoneticians reported the machine lies. If I was on welfare, I would be
stressed whether I lied or not. The Israeli maker of the voice analyzer
threatened to sue the journal, which obligingly yanked the paper.
3. WATERBOARDING: LEON PANETTA CONFIRMED TO HEAD THE CIA.
You will recall that the most infamous double agent, Aldrich Ames, passed
dozens of polygraph tests. Since then the agency has refined its lie
detection methods. The new technology is called "waterboarding" and is
said to take stress to the limit. Unfortunately, the quality of
intelligence from the CIA remains a national disaster. Yesterday, Leon
Panetta the former Democratic Congressman and White House Chief of Staff
under Bill Clinton was confirmed by the Senate to head the CIA. Concerns
were raised about his lack of intelligence experience. Is that a
problem? Just give Panetta a big broom.
4. AUTISM: A SPECIAL FEDERAL COURT EXONORATES VACCINES.
On Thursday, three special masters demolished arguments that childhood
vaccines, MMR in particular, cause autism. Brian Deer reported in the
Sunday Times of London that Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British physician
who set off the vaccine panic, "manipulated and altered data" (also known
as "lying") in a 1998 Lancet paper. The scientific case has been
eloquently made by Paul A. Offit, Autism’s False Prophets, (Columbia
University Press, 2008), who donated all royalties to autism research.
5. CENSORSHIP: FIGHT FOR FREEDOM BY BANNING BOOKS?
The Miami-Dade School Board banned "A Visit to Cuba," a book for children
4 to 8, depicting the life of children in Cuba. The complaint is that the
book did not reflect the "political indoctrination" of Cuban children. Is
that anything like reciting a Pledge of Allegiance and celebrating
Lincoln's Birthday? The ACLU sued on the grounds that the ban violates
the First Amendment; a Federal Appeals Court sided with the School Board.
An editorial in the NY Times his morning says, "The Supreme Court should
not let this ruling stand." I would add that it’s time to rethink our
Cuba policy.
1. DARWIN: HOMO SAPIENS EVOLVED IN A SAVAGE WORLD.
The oldest remains of Homo sapiens have been dated at about 160,000
years. Hunter gatherers, they could talk, but we have no way of knowing
what they said. It would be 150,000 years before the invention of
writing. We have changed little from the earliest Homo sapiens and almost
not at all since the birth of civilization; instead, we changed the
world. That may explain why barely half the population believes we
evolved over time as opposed to being created in our present form.
2. STRESSED: THE APE THAT TALKS OFTEN TELLS LIES.
This morning I fed "polygraph" into the search engine on the WN archives
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/search.html and got 42 hits going back to
1988. I said back then that, "the polygraph can’t tell a lie from the sex
act," which is still literally true. Other countries also have liars and
machines that lie about liars. Today in Science there is a news story by
Adrian Cho involving a 2007 paper in The International Journal of Speech,
Language and the Law, about a voice-analysis technique used by local
governments in the UK to weed out welfare cheats. Two Swedish
phoneticians reported the machine lies. If I was on welfare, I would be
stressed whether I lied or not. The Israeli maker of the voice analyzer
threatened to sue the journal, which obligingly yanked the paper.
3. WATERBOARDING: LEON PANETTA CONFIRMED TO HEAD THE CIA.
You will recall that the most infamous double agent, Aldrich Ames, passed
dozens of polygraph tests. Since then the agency has refined its lie
detection methods. The new technology is called "waterboarding" and is
said to take stress to the limit. Unfortunately, the quality of
intelligence from the CIA remains a national disaster. Yesterday, Leon
Panetta the former Democratic Congressman and White House Chief of Staff
under Bill Clinton was confirmed by the Senate to head the CIA. Concerns
were raised about his lack of intelligence experience. Is that a
problem? Just give Panetta a big broom.
4. AUTISM: A SPECIAL FEDERAL COURT EXONORATES VACCINES.
On Thursday, three special masters demolished arguments that childhood
vaccines, MMR in particular, cause autism. Brian Deer reported in the
Sunday Times of London that Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British physician
who set off the vaccine panic, "manipulated and altered data" (also known
as "lying") in a 1998 Lancet paper. The scientific case has been
eloquently made by Paul A. Offit, Autism’s False Prophets, (Columbia
University Press, 2008), who donated all royalties to autism research.
5. CENSORSHIP: FIGHT FOR FREEDOM BY BANNING BOOKS?
The Miami-Dade School Board banned "A Visit to Cuba," a book for children
4 to 8, depicting the life of children in Cuba. The complaint is that the
book did not reflect the "political indoctrination" of Cuban children. Is
that anything like reciting a Pledge of Allegiance and celebrating
Lincoln's Birthday? The ACLU sued on the grounds that the ban violates
the First Amendment; a Federal Appeals Court sided with the School Board.
An editorial in the NY Times his morning says, "The Supreme Court should
not let this ruling stand." I would add that it’s time to rethink our
Cuba policy.
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Dardedar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 8193
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Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 20 Mar 09 Washington, DC
1. ENLIGHTENMENT: SPRING ARRIVES FOR AMERICAN SCIENCE.
"The Enlightenment Returns," a guest editorial by Kurt Gottfried and
Harold Varmus in today's Science, reminds readers that the founders of our
nation were children of the Enlightenment. They "understood the power
that flows from combining human reason with empirical knowledge."
President Obama's Memorandum on Scientific Integrity directs
administration officials to neither suppress nor alter scientific and
technological findings, and make information developed for the government
available to the public. Our long winter is over.
2. RECOVERY ACT: THE BIGGEST BASIC RESEARCH INCREASE IN HISTORY.
The Recovery Act supplements NSF FY 09 funding by $3 billion. Of the $2
billion available in Research and Related Activities, the majority will be
used for proposals that are already in house. All grants issued with
Recovery Act funds will be standard grants with durations up to five
years. New principal investigators and high-risk, high-return research
will be top priorities. Proposals declined on or after October 1, 2008
will also be considered. The Recovery Act mandates a transparency and
accountability.
3. CANADA: ELECTION DID NOT GO WELL ABOVE THE 49TH PARALLEL.
Stephen Harper, newly elected Conservative-Party Prime Minister, named
Gary Goodyear, an obscure Member of Parliament, to be Minister of Science
and Technology. Already this year Goodyear oversaw a series of massive
science funding cuts, including zeroing out the Genome program. A
chiropractor and acupuncturist with no science background, he is known for
opposing same-sex marriage and favoring full legal rights for fertilized
eggs. Asked in an interview if he believed in evolution, he objected to
being questioned about religion. Later that day he said he believed in
evolution. He should have stopped there, but expanded with an example
from chiropractic about women’s shoes and the spine. He clearly confused
genetic inheritance with adaptation of an individual, or perhaps he
believes in Lamarckian evolution.
4. TURKEY: ISLAMIZATION OF TURKISH SOCIETY.
The Editor of Science and Technology magazine was fired over her plan to
mark the Darwin year with a magazine cover showing Darwin and the HMS
Beagle. Instead it marked the sad end of a secular society in Asia.
5. DISASTER: DID STRING THEORISTS MAKE A FINANCIAL BLACK HOLE?
Last year a federal court refused to enjoin the Large Hadron Collider from
being turned on lest the enormous energy create a black hole that would
devour Earth http://bobpark.org/WN08/wn040408.html . Earth survived this
reckless adventure by experimental physicists, but could theoretical
physicists be behind the financial black hole that's sucking up all of the
world’s wealth? The CBS News program 60 Minutes has warned repeatedly
that mathematicians and theoretical physicists are being recruited by Wall
Street Wall Street to concoct complicated financial "derivatives" that no
one can understand http://bobpark.org/WN95/wn031095.html . The current
favorite, assembled by the geniuses in the financial products division of
AIG, is the credit default swap, or CDS. You can think of a CDS as the
financial equivalent of an IED. For this they got millions in bonuses?
DAR
Regarding #3. This shows that conservatives are twits in Canada too. For a long time the Liberal Party was in power in Canada, then they got fat and bloated and a little corrupt as parties do when they have power for too long. So the conservatives will be in for a while, as long as they act quite liberal most of the time. Then it will flip around again. Canada isn't very conservative but the Liberals needed a little spanking.
1. ENLIGHTENMENT: SPRING ARRIVES FOR AMERICAN SCIENCE.
"The Enlightenment Returns," a guest editorial by Kurt Gottfried and
Harold Varmus in today's Science, reminds readers that the founders of our
nation were children of the Enlightenment. They "understood the power
that flows from combining human reason with empirical knowledge."
President Obama's Memorandum on Scientific Integrity directs
administration officials to neither suppress nor alter scientific and
technological findings, and make information developed for the government
available to the public. Our long winter is over.
2. RECOVERY ACT: THE BIGGEST BASIC RESEARCH INCREASE IN HISTORY.
The Recovery Act supplements NSF FY 09 funding by $3 billion. Of the $2
billion available in Research and Related Activities, the majority will be
used for proposals that are already in house. All grants issued with
Recovery Act funds will be standard grants with durations up to five
years. New principal investigators and high-risk, high-return research
will be top priorities. Proposals declined on or after October 1, 2008
will also be considered. The Recovery Act mandates a transparency and
accountability.
3. CANADA: ELECTION DID NOT GO WELL ABOVE THE 49TH PARALLEL.
Stephen Harper, newly elected Conservative-Party Prime Minister, named
Gary Goodyear, an obscure Member of Parliament, to be Minister of Science
and Technology. Already this year Goodyear oversaw a series of massive
science funding cuts, including zeroing out the Genome program. A
chiropractor and acupuncturist with no science background, he is known for
opposing same-sex marriage and favoring full legal rights for fertilized
eggs. Asked in an interview if he believed in evolution, he objected to
being questioned about religion. Later that day he said he believed in
evolution. He should have stopped there, but expanded with an example
from chiropractic about women’s shoes and the spine. He clearly confused
genetic inheritance with adaptation of an individual, or perhaps he
believes in Lamarckian evolution.
4. TURKEY: ISLAMIZATION OF TURKISH SOCIETY.
The Editor of Science and Technology magazine was fired over her plan to
mark the Darwin year with a magazine cover showing Darwin and the HMS
Beagle. Instead it marked the sad end of a secular society in Asia.
5. DISASTER: DID STRING THEORISTS MAKE A FINANCIAL BLACK HOLE?
Last year a federal court refused to enjoin the Large Hadron Collider from
being turned on lest the enormous energy create a black hole that would
devour Earth http://bobpark.org/WN08/wn040408.html . Earth survived this
reckless adventure by experimental physicists, but could theoretical
physicists be behind the financial black hole that's sucking up all of the
world’s wealth? The CBS News program 60 Minutes has warned repeatedly
that mathematicians and theoretical physicists are being recruited by Wall
Street Wall Street to concoct complicated financial "derivatives" that no
one can understand http://bobpark.org/WN95/wn031095.html . The current
favorite, assembled by the geniuses in the financial products division of
AIG, is the credit default swap, or CDS. You can think of a CDS as the
financial equivalent of an IED. For this they got millions in bonuses?
DAR
Regarding #3. This shows that conservatives are twits in Canada too. For a long time the Liberal Party was in power in Canada, then they got fat and bloated and a little corrupt as parties do when they have power for too long. So the conservatives will be in for a while, as long as they act quite liberal most of the time. Then it will flip around again. Canada isn't very conservative but the Liberals needed a little spanking.
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Dardedar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 8193
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Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 10 Apr 09 Washington, DC
1. DATELINE: A NEW WRINKLE ON THE HYDROGEN-FUEL SCAM.
Last Sunday, NBC Dateline exposed the Hydro Assist Fuel Cell, sold by
Dennis Lee, as a scam. It seemed like such a simple idea: powered by the
alternator, the HAFC decomposes water into hydrogen and oxygen and adds a
whiff of hydrogen into the combustion mixture, supposedly extending the
mileage you get. There are two small problems: it takes more energy to
decompose water than you get from combustion of the hydrogen, and Dennis
Lee is notorious for his scams. The hydrogen fuel scam has been fooling the
scientifically ignorant, including George W. Bush and former congressman
Robert Walker, for at least 40 years. This time, however, Lee was up
against tough Dateline investigators aided by the indefatigable Eric Krieg
of the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking, and a cameo
appearance by Bob Park. Lee got clobbered. I think.
2. DENNIS LEE: TOP DOG OF THE PERPETUAL SCAM.
In July of 1997, I was invited to go with an NBC Dateline camera crew to
cover a demonstration of a perpetual motion machine in Hackensack, NJ. You
don't get a chance to do that everyday. "Put one in your home and you will
never have to pay another electric bill," an ad in the Wall Street Journal
said. But Lee doesn't sell perpetual motion machines; he sells dealerships
for perpetual motion machines. The machine turned out to be the Gamgee Zero-
motor, invented in 1880 by John Gamgee who managed to sell it to the Navy;
it didn't work then either http://bobpark.org/WN97/wn071897.html . The
idea is to use a liquid that boils at room temperature to drive a piston,
thereby extracting energy from the ambient. Gamgee tried ammonia, but only
confirmed the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Lee solved that by using
carbon dioxide, which is liquid only under pressure. Thus the machine
actually ran on compressed carbon dioxide; not quite perpetually, but long
enough for a demonstration. NBC decided it was too technical for the
Dateline audience and it was never used. Two years later, I was a
consultant for ABC Good Morning America at a Lee demonstration in Columbus,
Ohio. He now had a perpetual-motion machine that used permanent magnets
(the 1870 Paine machine). By the time he got to Spokane in 2002 it
was “the principle of counter rotation.” Only the scam was perpetual.
3. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: WILL IT BE ANY DIFFERENT THIS TIME?
I was hired as a consultant by the Atty. Gen. of the state of Washington to
prepare an affidavit on Lee’s scams. Based on my affidavit, a state court
granted a summary judgment barring Lee from doing business in Washington.
In 2003, I did the same for the Atty. Gen. of Maine. Lee is also barred
from doing business in Kentucky. That leaves 47 states to go before he
moves to Canada. Each state is willing to let him screw people somewhere
else. I hear the Federal Trade Commission may be interested, but Lee is
not Bernie Madoff. Robbing retired couples who hope to extend their meager
retirement income doesn’t put Lee in a Manhattan penthouse, but he may be,
well, perpetual.
4. POPULATION: ARE THEY SURE THEY HAVE THE THEORY RIGHT?
Demographic experts warn that population decline in Russia could have
serious economic consequences. It’s the same growth-is-good bull shit that
always comes from the Chamber of Commerce. Russia's neighbors, Norway,
Finland and Sweden, have the highest standards of living in the world and
small populations. Afghanistan, on the other hand, which is not exactly a
tourist Mecca, has a fertility rate above 7, the highest in the world.
1. DATELINE: A NEW WRINKLE ON THE HYDROGEN-FUEL SCAM.
Last Sunday, NBC Dateline exposed the Hydro Assist Fuel Cell, sold by
Dennis Lee, as a scam. It seemed like such a simple idea: powered by the
alternator, the HAFC decomposes water into hydrogen and oxygen and adds a
whiff of hydrogen into the combustion mixture, supposedly extending the
mileage you get. There are two small problems: it takes more energy to
decompose water than you get from combustion of the hydrogen, and Dennis
Lee is notorious for his scams. The hydrogen fuel scam has been fooling the
scientifically ignorant, including George W. Bush and former congressman
Robert Walker, for at least 40 years. This time, however, Lee was up
against tough Dateline investigators aided by the indefatigable Eric Krieg
of the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking, and a cameo
appearance by Bob Park. Lee got clobbered. I think.
2. DENNIS LEE: TOP DOG OF THE PERPETUAL SCAM.
In July of 1997, I was invited to go with an NBC Dateline camera crew to
cover a demonstration of a perpetual motion machine in Hackensack, NJ. You
don't get a chance to do that everyday. "Put one in your home and you will
never have to pay another electric bill," an ad in the Wall Street Journal
said. But Lee doesn't sell perpetual motion machines; he sells dealerships
for perpetual motion machines. The machine turned out to be the Gamgee Zero-
motor, invented in 1880 by John Gamgee who managed to sell it to the Navy;
it didn't work then either http://bobpark.org/WN97/wn071897.html . The
idea is to use a liquid that boils at room temperature to drive a piston,
thereby extracting energy from the ambient. Gamgee tried ammonia, but only
confirmed the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Lee solved that by using
carbon dioxide, which is liquid only under pressure. Thus the machine
actually ran on compressed carbon dioxide; not quite perpetually, but long
enough for a demonstration. NBC decided it was too technical for the
Dateline audience and it was never used. Two years later, I was a
consultant for ABC Good Morning America at a Lee demonstration in Columbus,
Ohio. He now had a perpetual-motion machine that used permanent magnets
(the 1870 Paine machine). By the time he got to Spokane in 2002 it
was “the principle of counter rotation.” Only the scam was perpetual.
3. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: WILL IT BE ANY DIFFERENT THIS TIME?
I was hired as a consultant by the Atty. Gen. of the state of Washington to
prepare an affidavit on Lee’s scams. Based on my affidavit, a state court
granted a summary judgment barring Lee from doing business in Washington.
In 2003, I did the same for the Atty. Gen. of Maine. Lee is also barred
from doing business in Kentucky. That leaves 47 states to go before he
moves to Canada. Each state is willing to let him screw people somewhere
else. I hear the Federal Trade Commission may be interested, but Lee is
not Bernie Madoff. Robbing retired couples who hope to extend their meager
retirement income doesn’t put Lee in a Manhattan penthouse, but he may be,
well, perpetual.
4. POPULATION: ARE THEY SURE THEY HAVE THE THEORY RIGHT?
Demographic experts warn that population decline in Russia could have
serious economic consequences. It’s the same growth-is-good bull shit that
always comes from the Chamber of Commerce. Russia's neighbors, Norway,
Finland and Sweden, have the highest standards of living in the world and
small populations. Afghanistan, on the other hand, which is not exactly a
tourist Mecca, has a fertility rate above 7, the highest in the world.
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Dardedar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 8193
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- Contact:
Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 21 May 09 Washington, DC
snip...
2. ROCKET FUEL: WE’RE GOING BACK TO THE MOON TO GET WATER?
Last week, even as I was screwing up the story about the new telescopes,
Science magazine was perpetuating the rocket-fuel-on-the-Moon fantasy. I
don't know where it got started, but in March of 1998, Alan Binder, the
chief scientist on the lunar prospector mission, exulted that, "for the
first time, we know that when we go to another planetary body, we can fuel
up." It seems that water, or ice, had been detected in lunar soil at the
bottom of craters near the poles. The water was not detectable 18 months
later. NASA is now sending two missions to the Moon to look again.
Science magazine said last week that, "the lure of a resource easily
convertible into to a high-energy fuel of oxygen and hydrogen has driven
the decades long and often exasperating search for lunar ice." It's not
nearly as exasperating as it will be in the unlikely event that they do
find water and try to turn it into rocket fuel. If our planet is indeed
covered with rocket fuel to a depth of miles, why is there an energy crisis?
3. THERMODYNAMICS: WHY CAN’T WE JUST BURN THE ASHES?
While I was trying to understand how Science magazine could have missed a
turn in the road, a friend at the BBC called my attention to an April 30
article in the business section of the New York Times. To reduce the
emission of carbon dioxide from power plants, there are plans to sequester
it deep underground. You have to pay to extract it and then pay again to
get rid of it. However, a company called Carbon Sciences has an audacious
plan: Recycle the carbon by turning it into liquid hydrocarbon fuels. The
author experiences a brief attack of self-doubt, "how much energy would it
take to recombine carbon with hydrogen to produce a fuel that could then
substitute for gasoline." But his self-doubts seem to be swept away when
the company assures him they have a secret biocatalyst that will combine
the hydrogen in water with the carbon in carbon dioxide without the usual
large expenditure of energy. That's the same claim that inventor Sam Leach
made almost 40 years ago when he scammed investors out of millions with an
automobile that ran on water.
snip...
2. ROCKET FUEL: WE’RE GOING BACK TO THE MOON TO GET WATER?
Last week, even as I was screwing up the story about the new telescopes,
Science magazine was perpetuating the rocket-fuel-on-the-Moon fantasy. I
don't know where it got started, but in March of 1998, Alan Binder, the
chief scientist on the lunar prospector mission, exulted that, "for the
first time, we know that when we go to another planetary body, we can fuel
up." It seems that water, or ice, had been detected in lunar soil at the
bottom of craters near the poles. The water was not detectable 18 months
later. NASA is now sending two missions to the Moon to look again.
Science magazine said last week that, "the lure of a resource easily
convertible into to a high-energy fuel of oxygen and hydrogen has driven
the decades long and often exasperating search for lunar ice." It's not
nearly as exasperating as it will be in the unlikely event that they do
find water and try to turn it into rocket fuel. If our planet is indeed
covered with rocket fuel to a depth of miles, why is there an energy crisis?
3. THERMODYNAMICS: WHY CAN’T WE JUST BURN THE ASHES?
While I was trying to understand how Science magazine could have missed a
turn in the road, a friend at the BBC called my attention to an April 30
article in the business section of the New York Times. To reduce the
emission of carbon dioxide from power plants, there are plans to sequester
it deep underground. You have to pay to extract it and then pay again to
get rid of it. However, a company called Carbon Sciences has an audacious
plan: Recycle the carbon by turning it into liquid hydrocarbon fuels. The
author experiences a brief attack of self-doubt, "how much energy would it
take to recombine carbon with hydrogen to produce a fuel that could then
substitute for gasoline." But his self-doubts seem to be swept away when
the company assures him they have a secret biocatalyst that will combine
the hydrogen in water with the carbon in carbon dioxide without the usual
large expenditure of energy. That's the same claim that inventor Sam Leach
made almost 40 years ago when he scammed investors out of millions with an
automobile that ran on water.
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Dardedar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 8193
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- Contact:
Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 21 Aug 09 Washington, DC
1. NIH: TO THOSE WHO HAVE MUCH, MORE SHALL BE GIVEN.
With an annual budget of $30 billion, NIH was already the world's top
funded research agency; now throw in another $10.4 billion from this year's
stimulus package and you should have an organization that can respond to
every challenge. The new director, Francis Collins, outlined his
priorities this week, including health-care reform and the translation of
research into medicine. Collins also addressed concerns that his
evangelical Christian interests might influence the operation of NIH. He
resigned from BioLogos, the foundation he created to explore science and
faith, and insists that his "personal interests" will not interfere with
his judgments as director of NIH.
2. GHOST RESEARCHERS: THIS SHOULD NOT BE GOING ON.
An article by Natasha Singer in the business section of Wednesday's New
York Times calls attention to ghostwritten scientific papers. Singer
alleges that faculty at major medical schools routinely allow their names
to be added to scientific papers that are ghostwritten for them by
pharmaceutical companies, thus fattening their resume even if no money
changes hands. As you might expect, the papers report that some drug
produced by the company is beneficial. They are not even written by
scientists at the drug company; a medical-writing company is hired to crank
them out. This practice won't stop until the NIH, which controls most of
the grant money, penalizes participating faculty.
3. CLIMATE: OCEAN TEMPERATURES RISE TO A RECORD.
I still have global warming deniers sending me stories about how cold it is
this summer in East Cupcake, Nebraska or someplace. But they didn't send
me the Associated Press story this week on ocean temperatures. Because of
its high specific heat, water temperature changes slowly. The National
Climatic Data Center reported this week that the average global ocean
temperature in July was 62.6°F, the hottest since record-keeping began in
1880. Another record: there are actually people in the water at beaches in
Maine.
4. FREE ENERGY: NEVER PAY ANOTHER ELECTRIC BILL.
An alert reader sent me the URL for Magniwork. It’s an assemble-it-
yourself home generator that “powers itself” http://www.magniwork.com .
Joe Newman made the same claim
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN89/wn081889.html. So did Steorn just
recently http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN09/wn062609.html .
1. NIH: TO THOSE WHO HAVE MUCH, MORE SHALL BE GIVEN.
With an annual budget of $30 billion, NIH was already the world's top
funded research agency; now throw in another $10.4 billion from this year's
stimulus package and you should have an organization that can respond to
every challenge. The new director, Francis Collins, outlined his
priorities this week, including health-care reform and the translation of
research into medicine. Collins also addressed concerns that his
evangelical Christian interests might influence the operation of NIH. He
resigned from BioLogos, the foundation he created to explore science and
faith, and insists that his "personal interests" will not interfere with
his judgments as director of NIH.
2. GHOST RESEARCHERS: THIS SHOULD NOT BE GOING ON.
An article by Natasha Singer in the business section of Wednesday's New
York Times calls attention to ghostwritten scientific papers. Singer
alleges that faculty at major medical schools routinely allow their names
to be added to scientific papers that are ghostwritten for them by
pharmaceutical companies, thus fattening their resume even if no money
changes hands. As you might expect, the papers report that some drug
produced by the company is beneficial. They are not even written by
scientists at the drug company; a medical-writing company is hired to crank
them out. This practice won't stop until the NIH, which controls most of
the grant money, penalizes participating faculty.
3. CLIMATE: OCEAN TEMPERATURES RISE TO A RECORD.
I still have global warming deniers sending me stories about how cold it is
this summer in East Cupcake, Nebraska or someplace. But they didn't send
me the Associated Press story this week on ocean temperatures. Because of
its high specific heat, water temperature changes slowly. The National
Climatic Data Center reported this week that the average global ocean
temperature in July was 62.6°F, the hottest since record-keeping began in
1880. Another record: there are actually people in the water at beaches in
Maine.
4. FREE ENERGY: NEVER PAY ANOTHER ELECTRIC BILL.
An alert reader sent me the URL for Magniwork. It’s an assemble-it-
yourself home generator that “powers itself” http://www.magniwork.com .
Joe Newman made the same claim
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN89/wn081889.html. So did Steorn just
recently http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN09/wn062609.html .
Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
The issue is that the medical field is too far removed from what could be considered typical academia. This behavior would be a career ender for a physicist.Darrel wrote: 2. GHOST RESEARCHERS: THIS SHOULD NOT BE GOING ON.
An article by Natasha Singer in the business section of Wednesday's New
York Times calls attention to ghostwritten scientific papers. Singer
alleges that faculty at major medical schools routinely allow their names
to be added to scientific papers that are ghostwritten for them by
pharmaceutical companies, thus fattening their resume even if no money
changes hands. As you might expect, the papers report that some drug
produced by the company is beneficial. They are not even written by
scientists at the drug company; a medical-writing company is hired to crank
them out. This practice won't stop until the NIH, which controls most of
the grant money, penalizes participating faculty.
kevin
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Dardedar
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Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 04 Sep 09 Washington, DC
1. CLIMATE CHANGE: HOTTEST ARCTIC SUMMER IN 2,000 YEARS.
A major study published in today's Science marks a seminal advance in
climate change research. Sediments from Arctic lakes were used to compile
proxy temperature records for the last 2000 years. Arctic summer
temperature declined for thousands of years due to a shift in Earth's
orbit. Although the orbital shift has been going on for 8000 years and
will continue, an increase in greenhouse gases produced by the Industrial
Revolution overpowered the cooling trend. The warming has been more rapid
since about 1950. Moreover, thawing permafrost will release methane into
the atmosphere, accelerating warming. The latest study comes just months
after scientists at NOAA warned that within the next 30 years Arctic sea
ice could vanish completely during the summer; that will further accelerate
warming due to decline in reflective ice cover.
2. CLIMATE SOLUTIONS: IN THE LONG RUN, THERE IS ONLY ONE.
Even as the study on Arctic warming was making its way into print, a group
at the controversial Copenhagen Consensus Center proposed a quick geo-
engineered solution to global warming. The group is headed by statistician
Bjorn Lomborg, a follower of the late Julian Simon, the libertarian
economist at the University of Maryland, who believed there are no limits.
Lomborg proposes puffing lots of white clouds into the atmosphere to
reflect sunlight. It would be the perfect job for Lomborg, who has been
puffing clouds of obscurantism since he wrote The Skeptical
Environmentalist (Cambridge, 2001). Presumably we should just keep puffing
out bigger white clouds to compensate for the ever growing population.
***
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
For subscription see:
http://listserv.umd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBE ... atsnew&A=1
1. CLIMATE CHANGE: HOTTEST ARCTIC SUMMER IN 2,000 YEARS.
A major study published in today's Science marks a seminal advance in
climate change research. Sediments from Arctic lakes were used to compile
proxy temperature records for the last 2000 years. Arctic summer
temperature declined for thousands of years due to a shift in Earth's
orbit. Although the orbital shift has been going on for 8000 years and
will continue, an increase in greenhouse gases produced by the Industrial
Revolution overpowered the cooling trend. The warming has been more rapid
since about 1950. Moreover, thawing permafrost will release methane into
the atmosphere, accelerating warming. The latest study comes just months
after scientists at NOAA warned that within the next 30 years Arctic sea
ice could vanish completely during the summer; that will further accelerate
warming due to decline in reflective ice cover.
2. CLIMATE SOLUTIONS: IN THE LONG RUN, THERE IS ONLY ONE.
Even as the study on Arctic warming was making its way into print, a group
at the controversial Copenhagen Consensus Center proposed a quick geo-
engineered solution to global warming. The group is headed by statistician
Bjorn Lomborg, a follower of the late Julian Simon, the libertarian
economist at the University of Maryland, who believed there are no limits.
Lomborg proposes puffing lots of white clouds into the atmosphere to
reflect sunlight. It would be the perfect job for Lomborg, who has been
puffing clouds of obscurantism since he wrote The Skeptical
Environmentalist (Cambridge, 2001). Presumably we should just keep puffing
out bigger white clouds to compensate for the ever growing population.
***
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
For subscription see:
http://listserv.umd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBE ... atsnew&A=1
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Dardedar
- Site Admin
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Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
Just so you know... the theme of our November meeting we will be... Dowsing.
***
WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 6 Nov 09 Washington, DC
1. DIVINING: THIS TIME, IT’S A BOMB DETECTOR.
There it was, on the front page of the New York Times; the Iraqi government
has purchased more than 1500 devices known as the ADE 651 to use at
checkpoints. That stands for Advanced Detection of Explosives. The 651 is
the latest detection device marketed by ATSC (UK) Ltd. It consists of a
thin rod mounted on a swivel held by pistol grip, and is said to point to
explosives. That's all it is, there are no sensors. According to Rod
Nordland who wrote the article, a retired USAF officer said the device is
nothing more than an explosives divining rod,. The stupid Iraqis don't
know this and paid $16,500-$60,000 each for them, even though American
officers told them the devices are worthless. Boy, are they dumb! Wait,
the NYT failed mention that the US Department of Defense was sold on these
devices back in the 90s Although it was classified, they tipped off their
favorite novelist, Tom Clancy, that the incredible device could detect
people through thick walls by sensing their heartbeats. It was the basis
of "Rainbow Six," http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN98/wn092598.html . It
was a scam. Thousands of similar devices are still in use by local police
around the country to satisfy "probable cause" requirements for a property
search. ATSC also sells a narcotic detector, but it's exactly the same
device with a different number.
2. MEMORY: WHY IS IT NECESSARY TO KEEP DEBUNKING THIS STUFF?
Is there no memory? Where I grew up in Texas no one would think of digging
a well until the local dowser using a willow fork approved the spot. Since
then, dowsing for water has been debunked over and over, most thoroughly by
James Randi. But dowsing is now used for everything. Last year, the power
company needed to find a buried power cable on our road. I watched the
lineman reach under the seat of his truck, pull out a stiff wire bent in
the shape of a fork, and start dousing for the cable. If it works for
everything, there is no physical cause and it’s not science.
3. MAGNETS: NEVER PAY ANOTHER ELECTRIC BILL.
The first time I heard that promise it was made by Joseph W. Newman on the
CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in 1987. A Mississippi backwoods-mechanic
with a grade-school education, Newman took a course in electricity. When
he heard that doubling the number of turns in a coil would double the
magnetic field, he left to wind a mighty coil that would generate more
energy than it took. Newman never got to Lenz’s law, and CBS did not
bother to check with a scientist. About every five years since, that
machine is reinvented. You can now build your own "energy machine" with a
kit from Magnets4Energy, but it still won't work.
4. PRAYER: SHOULD PRAYER TREATMENTS BE COVERED?
Some powerful members of the Senate propose language in the healthcare bill
would prohibit discrimination against "religious and spiritual health
care." The unstated purpose is to cover the cost of Christian Science
prayer treatments in the healthcare bill. This shouldn't be a problem.
The church, says the treatments are effective; if so these people will not
need real medical care. If, on the other hand, prayer treatments are not
effective, they are a subsidy to the Church of Christ, Scientist and the
program should be reimbursed by that amount.
***
WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 6 Nov 09 Washington, DC
1. DIVINING: THIS TIME, IT’S A BOMB DETECTOR.
There it was, on the front page of the New York Times; the Iraqi government
has purchased more than 1500 devices known as the ADE 651 to use at
checkpoints. That stands for Advanced Detection of Explosives. The 651 is
the latest detection device marketed by ATSC (UK) Ltd. It consists of a
thin rod mounted on a swivel held by pistol grip, and is said to point to
explosives. That's all it is, there are no sensors. According to Rod
Nordland who wrote the article, a retired USAF officer said the device is
nothing more than an explosives divining rod,. The stupid Iraqis don't
know this and paid $16,500-$60,000 each for them, even though American
officers told them the devices are worthless. Boy, are they dumb! Wait,
the NYT failed mention that the US Department of Defense was sold on these
devices back in the 90s Although it was classified, they tipped off their
favorite novelist, Tom Clancy, that the incredible device could detect
people through thick walls by sensing their heartbeats. It was the basis
of "Rainbow Six," http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN98/wn092598.html . It
was a scam. Thousands of similar devices are still in use by local police
around the country to satisfy "probable cause" requirements for a property
search. ATSC also sells a narcotic detector, but it's exactly the same
device with a different number.
2. MEMORY: WHY IS IT NECESSARY TO KEEP DEBUNKING THIS STUFF?
Is there no memory? Where I grew up in Texas no one would think of digging
a well until the local dowser using a willow fork approved the spot. Since
then, dowsing for water has been debunked over and over, most thoroughly by
James Randi. But dowsing is now used for everything. Last year, the power
company needed to find a buried power cable on our road. I watched the
lineman reach under the seat of his truck, pull out a stiff wire bent in
the shape of a fork, and start dousing for the cable. If it works for
everything, there is no physical cause and it’s not science.
3. MAGNETS: NEVER PAY ANOTHER ELECTRIC BILL.
The first time I heard that promise it was made by Joseph W. Newman on the
CBS Evening News with Dan Rather in 1987. A Mississippi backwoods-mechanic
with a grade-school education, Newman took a course in electricity. When
he heard that doubling the number of turns in a coil would double the
magnetic field, he left to wind a mighty coil that would generate more
energy than it took. Newman never got to Lenz’s law, and CBS did not
bother to check with a scientist. About every five years since, that
machine is reinvented. You can now build your own "energy machine" with a
kit from Magnets4Energy, but it still won't work.
4. PRAYER: SHOULD PRAYER TREATMENTS BE COVERED?
Some powerful members of the Senate propose language in the healthcare bill
would prohibit discrimination against "religious and spiritual health
care." The unstated purpose is to cover the cost of Christian Science
prayer treatments in the healthcare bill. This shouldn't be a problem.
The church, says the treatments are effective; if so these people will not
need real medical care. If, on the other hand, prayer treatments are not
effective, they are a subsidy to the Church of Christ, Scientist and the
program should be reimbursed by that amount.
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Dardedar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 8193
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- Contact:
Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 27 Nov 09 Washington, DC
1. LHC: THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER IS COLLIDING PROTONS!
We said last week that the LHC began circulating protons around its 27 km
race course. This week, ahead of schedule, protons were actually
collided. The energies were somewhat below the record held by the Tevatron
at Fermilab. By Christmas, however, if all goes well, collision energies
should reach 2.4 TeV. It still has a very long way to go to reach the 14
TeV design energy in its search for the Higgs boson. Each increase in
energy magnifes the mechanical stress on giant superconducting magnets that
bend the proton trajectories. In a radio interview on Wednesday, I was
asked how this research will benefit society. It will not put food on our
tables, provide energy for industry, cure disease or smite our enemies. It
will, however, take us a step closer to understanding the natural laws that
resulted in our existence, exposing many popular beliefs to be
superstitions.
2. FAITH: DO WE NEED TO HAVE ANOTHER TALK?
On Wednesday in the NY Times an op-ed by Nicholas Kristof remarked on a new
crop of books dealing with the war between science and religion. He
describes this latest crop as "less combative and more thoughtful" than
those by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and the like.
He hopes this "marks an armistice in the religious wars." I hope not.
Kristof is particularly taken by Robert Wright's "The Evolution of God." I
like it too. Wright is smart, and a really good writer, but he needs to be
more like Dawkins, Hichens and Harris. In his latest book he explores how
religion has gotten "better" over time. People are no longer burned at the
stake in the name of religion. No, now they are now blown to pieces with
improvised explosive devices or flown into the side of public buildings.
Different religion -- same God.
3. OVERPOPULATION: A RESULT OF TOO MANY INNUMERATES.
Last week, Brendan O'Neill, innumerate editor of the online publication,
Spiked, thought his side of a debate on population to be so brilliant he
published it with the title: Too many people? No, too many Malthusians.
Could Brendan O’Neill be related to Gerard K. O'Neill, the Princeton
physicist who in 1977 published "The High Frontier: Human Colonies in
Space?" O’Neill proposed erecting "islands" in space at the L5 point
between the Earth and the Moon to serve as colonies on which to offload
Earth's excess population. He envisioned giant cylinders, closed at the
ends, rotated about the axis to simulate gravity for people living on the
inner surface. He thought each island could support 1 million people. In
the 33 years since, Earth's population has grown by 3 billion. We would
need 3 thousand of these gigantic space colonies to offload the excess
population. Today, the hugely expensive ISS has trouble keeping 6 alive.
4. MALTHUS: A HERO BEFORE HIS TIME.
Born in 1776 in Surrey, Thomas Malthus was well-educated in mathematics,
but served as a gentle country parson, keeping the census in his parish.
He observed that most animals bore offspring far beyond mere replacement.
This would result in exponential growth of the population, eventually
overflowing the boundaries of productive agriculture. His simple reasoning
was dismissed by the mathematically challenged, and still is.
1. LHC: THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER IS COLLIDING PROTONS!
We said last week that the LHC began circulating protons around its 27 km
race course. This week, ahead of schedule, protons were actually
collided. The energies were somewhat below the record held by the Tevatron
at Fermilab. By Christmas, however, if all goes well, collision energies
should reach 2.4 TeV. It still has a very long way to go to reach the 14
TeV design energy in its search for the Higgs boson. Each increase in
energy magnifes the mechanical stress on giant superconducting magnets that
bend the proton trajectories. In a radio interview on Wednesday, I was
asked how this research will benefit society. It will not put food on our
tables, provide energy for industry, cure disease or smite our enemies. It
will, however, take us a step closer to understanding the natural laws that
resulted in our existence, exposing many popular beliefs to be
superstitions.
2. FAITH: DO WE NEED TO HAVE ANOTHER TALK?
On Wednesday in the NY Times an op-ed by Nicholas Kristof remarked on a new
crop of books dealing with the war between science and religion. He
describes this latest crop as "less combative and more thoughtful" than
those by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and the like.
He hopes this "marks an armistice in the religious wars." I hope not.
Kristof is particularly taken by Robert Wright's "The Evolution of God." I
like it too. Wright is smart, and a really good writer, but he needs to be
more like Dawkins, Hichens and Harris. In his latest book he explores how
religion has gotten "better" over time. People are no longer burned at the
stake in the name of religion. No, now they are now blown to pieces with
improvised explosive devices or flown into the side of public buildings.
Different religion -- same God.
3. OVERPOPULATION: A RESULT OF TOO MANY INNUMERATES.
Last week, Brendan O'Neill, innumerate editor of the online publication,
Spiked, thought his side of a debate on population to be so brilliant he
published it with the title: Too many people? No, too many Malthusians.
Could Brendan O’Neill be related to Gerard K. O'Neill, the Princeton
physicist who in 1977 published "The High Frontier: Human Colonies in
Space?" O’Neill proposed erecting "islands" in space at the L5 point
between the Earth and the Moon to serve as colonies on which to offload
Earth's excess population. He envisioned giant cylinders, closed at the
ends, rotated about the axis to simulate gravity for people living on the
inner surface. He thought each island could support 1 million people. In
the 33 years since, Earth's population has grown by 3 billion. We would
need 3 thousand of these gigantic space colonies to offload the excess
population. Today, the hugely expensive ISS has trouble keeping 6 alive.
4. MALTHUS: A HERO BEFORE HIS TIME.
Born in 1776 in Surrey, Thomas Malthus was well-educated in mathematics,
but served as a gentle country parson, keeping the census in his parish.
He observed that most animals bore offspring far beyond mere replacement.
This would result in exponential growth of the population, eventually
overflowing the boundaries of productive agriculture. His simple reasoning
was dismissed by the mathematically challenged, and still is.
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Dardedar
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Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 11 Dec 09 Washington, DC
1. WARMER: THE TREND SHOWS NO SIGN OFF ENDING.
At the Copenhagen climate talks, Michel Jarraud, secretary general of the
international weather agency, told a news conference that the period from
2000 through 2009 will almost certainly be the warmest decade in the 150
years of modern record-keeping. And with just a few weeks remaining, 2009
will likely be the fifth warmest year on record. But what about those
hacked emails from the climate research unit at the University of East
Anglia? Jarraud replied that there is no evidence that independent
estimates showing a warming world are in doubt. The more interesting
question is who was behind the break-in and why? The use of dirty tricks to
cast doubt on the reality of global warming began with Kyoto.
2. KYOTO: THE PROTOCOL WAS ADOPTED 12 YEARS AGO TODAY.
It?s awkward that the United States, alone among major nations, declined to
ratify the Kyoto protocol calling for reduction of greenhouse gases.
Without the United States, which is responsible for 1/3 of the world's
greenhouse emissions, the Kyoto accord was meaningless. To convince
Congress and the public that scientists have serious doubts about global
warming, a petition was launched. The only return address on a massive
mailing to academic scientists was a P.O. Box. The only name was Fred
Seitz. A famous condensed matter physicist in his earlier years, Seitz
headed the ultra-conservative George C. Marshall Institute in Washington.
Seitz was also a permanent paid consultant of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Company. Although he conducted no tobacco research, Seitz used his
scientific reputation to cast doubt on medical evidence showing that
secondhand smoke is dangerous. Now he was doing the same for global
warming. The petition mailing included a Wall Street Journal op-ed that
said we have an ethical responsibility to burn as much fossil fuel as
possible to get carbon out of the ground and into the air where it can
create life. According to NBC news correspondent Ian Williams this week,
the life C02 is helping to create in Malaysia includes the Aedes Aegypti
mosquito that multiplies more rapidly as the temperature rises. Aedes
transmits dengue fever.
3. NATURALLY: ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE IS IN THE HEALTH REFORM BILL.
Sen. Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat also known as Senator Bee Pollen, could
not let the Health Reform Bill go through without a provision mandating
that insurers reimburse alternative medicine providers. It was Harkin, you
will recall, who was responsible for creation of the National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), forcing Harold Varmus to
resign as head of NIH. NCCAM hasn't found any cures, but it has done a
credible job of using rigorous placebo-controlled double-blind studies to
demonstrate that one herbal remedy after another is totally ineffective.
Presumably the alternative medicine providers will be reimbursed for
applying the placebo effect.
1. WARMER: THE TREND SHOWS NO SIGN OFF ENDING.
At the Copenhagen climate talks, Michel Jarraud, secretary general of the
international weather agency, told a news conference that the period from
2000 through 2009 will almost certainly be the warmest decade in the 150
years of modern record-keeping. And with just a few weeks remaining, 2009
will likely be the fifth warmest year on record. But what about those
hacked emails from the climate research unit at the University of East
Anglia? Jarraud replied that there is no evidence that independent
estimates showing a warming world are in doubt. The more interesting
question is who was behind the break-in and why? The use of dirty tricks to
cast doubt on the reality of global warming began with Kyoto.
2. KYOTO: THE PROTOCOL WAS ADOPTED 12 YEARS AGO TODAY.
It?s awkward that the United States, alone among major nations, declined to
ratify the Kyoto protocol calling for reduction of greenhouse gases.
Without the United States, which is responsible for 1/3 of the world's
greenhouse emissions, the Kyoto accord was meaningless. To convince
Congress and the public that scientists have serious doubts about global
warming, a petition was launched. The only return address on a massive
mailing to academic scientists was a P.O. Box. The only name was Fred
Seitz. A famous condensed matter physicist in his earlier years, Seitz
headed the ultra-conservative George C. Marshall Institute in Washington.
Seitz was also a permanent paid consultant of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Company. Although he conducted no tobacco research, Seitz used his
scientific reputation to cast doubt on medical evidence showing that
secondhand smoke is dangerous. Now he was doing the same for global
warming. The petition mailing included a Wall Street Journal op-ed that
said we have an ethical responsibility to burn as much fossil fuel as
possible to get carbon out of the ground and into the air where it can
create life. According to NBC news correspondent Ian Williams this week,
the life C02 is helping to create in Malaysia includes the Aedes Aegypti
mosquito that multiplies more rapidly as the temperature rises. Aedes
transmits dengue fever.
3. NATURALLY: ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE IS IN THE HEALTH REFORM BILL.
Sen. Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat also known as Senator Bee Pollen, could
not let the Health Reform Bill go through without a provision mandating
that insurers reimburse alternative medicine providers. It was Harkin, you
will recall, who was responsible for creation of the National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), forcing Harold Varmus to
resign as head of NIH. NCCAM hasn't found any cures, but it has done a
credible job of using rigorous placebo-controlled double-blind studies to
demonstrate that one herbal remedy after another is totally ineffective.
Presumably the alternative medicine providers will be reimbursed for
applying the placebo effect.
-
Dardedar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 8193
- Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 9:18 pm
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- Contact:
Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 01 Jan 10 Washington, DC
1. UNDERWEAR BOMBS: THE ONLY DEFENCE IS FULL EXPOSURE.
The problem with suicide bombers is that they’re never experienced. We
endure the minor indignity of removing our shoes when passing through
airport security ever since a young Al Qaeda recruit named Richard Reid
attempted to detonate an explosive substance in his shoes on a flight from
Paris to Miami on 22 Dec 2001 without having first tried it. Either the
flight was sold out on Christmas or Richard had it confused with the winter
solstice. Removing your shoes is no big deal, but about 2 million people
pass through airport security in the US every day; over eight years that’s
something in the neighborhood of 1 billion pairs of shoes being taken off
and put back on, not to mention the number of lost shoes. Think of it as a
sort of tax on staying alive. The guy that invented the shoe bomb that
failed to go off for Richard Reid on Winter Solstice 2001 must have
invented the underwear bomb that didn’t go off for Umar Abdulmutallab on
Christmas 2009. Let’s hope they keep this guy. But what are we supposed
to do now? We can't parade our private stuff in public. Or can we? Air
travel could be limited to those willing to go naked through terminals. If
you have it, you should flaunt it.
2. BREWING TROUBLE: NOT ALL THE THINGS WE LIKE ARE BAD FOR US.
It's a common experience: your doctor is treating you for some chronic
condition and suggests you try cutting back on coffee. This is based on an
ancient medical principle that the things we enjoy most must be bad for us.
The Personal Journal section of the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday gives
the other side in a striking visual: 6 cups per day lowered the risk of
advanced prostate cancer in a 20 year study of 50,000 men, 5 cups per day
lowered their risk of Alzheimer's by 65%, 4 cups per day cut the risk of
stroke by 43% in a study of 83,000 nurses, and so on. This, of course,
represents blatant cherry picking from a number of studies. Nevertheless,
the Wall Street Journal article relieves some of the guilt feelings of
confirmed caffeine addicts.
3. NASA: SPACE COWBOYS ARE BACK IN THE SADDLE.
According to an article by Andrew Lawler in today's Science, president
Obama plans to ask Congress to cancel work on the Ares 1 rocket and replace
it with a heavy-lift vehicle to take humans to the Moon, asteroids, and the
moons of Mars. To prepare for human visits to Phobos and Deimos may order
additional robotic missions, which leads one to wonder why they are
planning for a human presence at all. The international space Station
meanwhile seems to have dropped off the radar. What is critically important
at this time is to replace Earth observing satellites that are a part of
climate change studies.
1. UNDERWEAR BOMBS: THE ONLY DEFENCE IS FULL EXPOSURE.
The problem with suicide bombers is that they’re never experienced. We
endure the minor indignity of removing our shoes when passing through
airport security ever since a young Al Qaeda recruit named Richard Reid
attempted to detonate an explosive substance in his shoes on a flight from
Paris to Miami on 22 Dec 2001 without having first tried it. Either the
flight was sold out on Christmas or Richard had it confused with the winter
solstice. Removing your shoes is no big deal, but about 2 million people
pass through airport security in the US every day; over eight years that’s
something in the neighborhood of 1 billion pairs of shoes being taken off
and put back on, not to mention the number of lost shoes. Think of it as a
sort of tax on staying alive. The guy that invented the shoe bomb that
failed to go off for Richard Reid on Winter Solstice 2001 must have
invented the underwear bomb that didn’t go off for Umar Abdulmutallab on
Christmas 2009. Let’s hope they keep this guy. But what are we supposed
to do now? We can't parade our private stuff in public. Or can we? Air
travel could be limited to those willing to go naked through terminals. If
you have it, you should flaunt it.
2. BREWING TROUBLE: NOT ALL THE THINGS WE LIKE ARE BAD FOR US.
It's a common experience: your doctor is treating you for some chronic
condition and suggests you try cutting back on coffee. This is based on an
ancient medical principle that the things we enjoy most must be bad for us.
The Personal Journal section of the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday gives
the other side in a striking visual: 6 cups per day lowered the risk of
advanced prostate cancer in a 20 year study of 50,000 men, 5 cups per day
lowered their risk of Alzheimer's by 65%, 4 cups per day cut the risk of
stroke by 43% in a study of 83,000 nurses, and so on. This, of course,
represents blatant cherry picking from a number of studies. Nevertheless,
the Wall Street Journal article relieves some of the guilt feelings of
confirmed caffeine addicts.
3. NASA: SPACE COWBOYS ARE BACK IN THE SADDLE.
According to an article by Andrew Lawler in today's Science, president
Obama plans to ask Congress to cancel work on the Ares 1 rocket and replace
it with a heavy-lift vehicle to take humans to the Moon, asteroids, and the
moons of Mars. To prepare for human visits to Phobos and Deimos may order
additional robotic missions, which leads one to wonder why they are
planning for a human presence at all. The international space Station
meanwhile seems to have dropped off the radar. What is critically important
at this time is to replace Earth observing satellites that are a part of
climate change studies.
Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
I'll go full monte for my country...
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tmiller51
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Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
Truly the terrorists have won.I'll go full monte for my country...
Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
Hey, if the terrorist had spent more time naked they wouldn't be terrorist now would they....they would be nudist.tmiller51 wrote: Truly the terrorists have won.
Last edited by kwlyon on Sat May 22, 2010 10:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Doug
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Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
DOUG writes:kwlyon wrote:I'll go full monte for my country...
A couple of years ago a woman behind me in line at the airport, as we were taking our shoes off, told me that she wishes they would make us take our pants off. I don't remember what snappy response I had. Her comment caught me off guard.
Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
George Carlin had it right....Airport security is just a farce to make rich white people feel safe. I really don't understand what the deal is with airplanes. You don't need a plane to kill a bunch of people...and no amount of security will every stop someone...you know....if they care enough. If we want to secure our country and win this war on terror we have got to get our priorities straight. We have got to address the root of the problem--the reason the terrorist want to kill us. We have got to stop the gays from getting married.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXPcBI4CJc8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXPcBI4CJc8
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Dardedar
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Re: What's New? -- by Bob Park
WHAT’S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, May 21, 2010 Washington, DC
1. BIRTH OF SCIENCE: NEXT FRIDAY, MAY 28, SCIENCE WILL BE 2,595 YEARS OLD.
On May 28, 585 B.C. the swath of a total solar eclipse passed over the
Greek island of Miletus. The early Greek philosopher, Thales of Miletus,
alone understood what was happening. The world's first recorded
freethinker, Thales rejected all supernatural explanations, and used the
occasion to state the first law of science: every observable effect has a
physical cause. The 585 B.C. eclipse is now taken to mark the birth of
science, and Thales is honored as the father. What troubles would be
spared the world if the education of every child began with causality? We
might, for example, have been spared the absurd cell phone/cancer myth:
2. CELL PHONES: LONG-AWAITED CANCER STUDY RELEASED THIS WEEK.
No link to brain cancer was found in a 10 year, $14 million epidemiological
study of cell phone use in 13 countries (the US was not among them); the
study was led by the World Health Organization (WHO). So is it safe to use
cell phones? Uh, the report doesn't exactly say, instead it concludes
that "more study is needed." On the contrary, the WHO study itself was not
needed. I remind you that flawed epidemiology led to the great power-line
scare more than 20 years ago. Publicized by a series of ignorant articles
in the New Yorker http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN89/wn082589.html , it
was a costly diversion that morphed into the cell-phone scare on Larry King
Live http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN93/wn012993.html . Epidemiology is a
useful tool for identifying possible environmental hazards, but it is not
science, or a substitute for science. The science of electromagnetic
radiation is clear: photons with energies below the photoelectric threshold
(extreme blue-end of the visible spectrum) are not cancer agents. The
energy of the photoelectron threshold is about 1 million times the energy
of a microwave photon. Blueberry consumption would have a greater chance of
being linked to cancer. Even as I send this off, however, my mail is full
of warnings from nonscientists about the dangers of cell phones.
3. NCI: HAROLD VARMUS WILL HEAD THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE.
Currently President of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the
former director of NIH has been named to head the National Cancer
Institute. Some are surprised that a former head of NIH would agree to
direct one of its institutes, but Varmus never seems limited by the
expected. Perhaps he believes, as many others do that we are on the
threshold of major progress in preventing cancer. In this battle, the cell
phone myth is a tragic diversion.
4. MARS ROVER: THE OLDEST COLONIST ON THE RED PLANET.
Opportunity arrived on Mars 25 Jan 04. In the 6 Earth-years since,
Opportunity has never once complained about the cold nights, and it lives
on sunshine. It has now operated on Mars longer than the 1976 Viking 1
lander, which ceased transmission in November of 1982. Meanwhile, Spirit,
Opportunity's twin, is stuck in a sand trap. Not a lot happens on Mars for
a stationary observer to report on, so Opportunity is trekking to a large
crater. It should be there in a couple of years. Long before an astronaut
could get there.
1. BIRTH OF SCIENCE: NEXT FRIDAY, MAY 28, SCIENCE WILL BE 2,595 YEARS OLD.
On May 28, 585 B.C. the swath of a total solar eclipse passed over the
Greek island of Miletus. The early Greek philosopher, Thales of Miletus,
alone understood what was happening. The world's first recorded
freethinker, Thales rejected all supernatural explanations, and used the
occasion to state the first law of science: every observable effect has a
physical cause. The 585 B.C. eclipse is now taken to mark the birth of
science, and Thales is honored as the father. What troubles would be
spared the world if the education of every child began with causality? We
might, for example, have been spared the absurd cell phone/cancer myth:
2. CELL PHONES: LONG-AWAITED CANCER STUDY RELEASED THIS WEEK.
No link to brain cancer was found in a 10 year, $14 million epidemiological
study of cell phone use in 13 countries (the US was not among them); the
study was led by the World Health Organization (WHO). So is it safe to use
cell phones? Uh, the report doesn't exactly say, instead it concludes
that "more study is needed." On the contrary, the WHO study itself was not
needed. I remind you that flawed epidemiology led to the great power-line
scare more than 20 years ago. Publicized by a series of ignorant articles
in the New Yorker http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN89/wn082589.html , it
was a costly diversion that morphed into the cell-phone scare on Larry King
Live http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN93/wn012993.html . Epidemiology is a
useful tool for identifying possible environmental hazards, but it is not
science, or a substitute for science. The science of electromagnetic
radiation is clear: photons with energies below the photoelectric threshold
(extreme blue-end of the visible spectrum) are not cancer agents. The
energy of the photoelectron threshold is about 1 million times the energy
of a microwave photon. Blueberry consumption would have a greater chance of
being linked to cancer. Even as I send this off, however, my mail is full
of warnings from nonscientists about the dangers of cell phones.
3. NCI: HAROLD VARMUS WILL HEAD THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE.
Currently President of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the
former director of NIH has been named to head the National Cancer
Institute. Some are surprised that a former head of NIH would agree to
direct one of its institutes, but Varmus never seems limited by the
expected. Perhaps he believes, as many others do that we are on the
threshold of major progress in preventing cancer. In this battle, the cell
phone myth is a tragic diversion.
4. MARS ROVER: THE OLDEST COLONIST ON THE RED PLANET.
Opportunity arrived on Mars 25 Jan 04. In the 6 Earth-years since,
Opportunity has never once complained about the cold nights, and it lives
on sunshine. It has now operated on Mars longer than the 1976 Viking 1
lander, which ceased transmission in November of 1982. Meanwhile, Spirit,
Opportunity's twin, is stuck in a sand trap. Not a lot happens on Mars for
a stationary observer to report on, so Opportunity is trekking to a large
crater. It should be there in a couple of years. Long before an astronaut
could get there.