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What's New | 3 Jul 2003 20:16
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WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 4 Jul 03 Washington, DC

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 4 Jul 03   Washington, DC

(Andrew Essin contributed to this week's What's New.)

1. NASA: COULD AN ASTRONAUT LEARN TO SURVIVE BY PHOTOSYNTHESIS? 
Perhaps the Columbia accident convinced NASA that a backup plan
is needed in case astronauts are stranded on the Space Station
(WN 14 Mar 03).  According to the Hindustan Times, NASA turned to
a survival expert, Hira Ratan Manek, a 64-year-old mechanical
engineer from India.  Manek claims to have survived for eight
years on sunlight, water and a little tea.  He is in the United
States to show NASA how he does it.  NASA scientists reportedly
verified that Manek survived on water and sunlight for 130 days. 
The NASA Public Affairs Office confirmed to WN that the claim is
true.  This is a bold new approach.  If the laws of nature stand
in the way of a solution, it's time to change the laws.  

2. HAGELIN IN 2003: THIS TIME YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO VOTE. 
Yesterday, at a press conference in Washington, John Hagelin -
string theorist (PhD Harvard '81), follower of Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi, and erstwhile Presidential candidate of the Natural Law
Party - announced the formation of a US Peace Government, not to
be confused with the one in the Constitution.  The two seem to be
on non-intersecting sheets.  The Peace Government will focus on
the prevention of society's problems, a task to which traditional
government is apparently unsuited.  Specific policies include
"consciousness-based total brain education" and creation of Peace
Palaces, where advanced practitioners of Transcendental
Meditation will meditate away the tensions of society.  Long-time
readers of WN will recall the Program to Reduce Violent Crime in
(Continue reading)

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What's New | 11 Jul 2003 22:25
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WHAT'S NEW Friday, 11 Jul 03

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 11 Jul 03   Washington, DC

(Andrew Essin contributed to this issue of What's New.)

1. ERROR: NASA REFUTES STORY ABOUT A MAN WHO LIVES ON SUNLIGHT.  
Last week, WN picked up the story from Space Daily, which got it
from the Hindustan Times, about a guy in India who claims he can
survive on water and sunlight and who was invited to the US by
NASA.  WN called NASA and thought it confirmed the invitation.
However, NASA insists they said there had been no contact with
him.  WN deeply regrets the confusion.  It will now be WN policy
to avoid anything that photosynthesizes lest it fall on Bob Park. 

2. INTELLIGENT DESIGN: THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO TEXAS.  A plague of
Biblical proportions threatens civilization.  The frog population
may not explode, nor the Mississippi turn to blood, but school
boards across the land are being stalked.  The name of the beast
is Intelligent Design (ID), and it seeks to rip evolution from
children's textbooks.  ID recently turned up in Texas, where the
State School Board has begun to review biology textbooks.  It is
such a huge market that what happens there will determine
textbooks in dozens of other states.  The Seattle-based Discovery
Institute (DI) is behind the effort to rid the books of "factual
errors" (evolution).  The Board of Education holds its next
public hearing in September; if Texas scientists make themselves
heard, instead of wailing and gnashing of teeth, there will be
rejoicing in the states.         

3. FDA: IS SALMON A FOOD OR A DIETARY SUPPLEMENT?  The FDA will
soon revise food labeling regulations, allowing companies to make
(Continue reading)

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What's New | 18 Jul 2003 22:04
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WHAT'S NEW Friday, 18 Jul 03

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 18 Jul 03   Washington, DC

(Andrew Essin contributed to this issue of What's New.)

NOTE: Nothing in this issue is based on British Intelligence.

1. MISSILE DEFENSE: APS BOOST-PHASE STUDY - IT'S ABOUT TIME.  On 
Tuesday, the APS held a Washington press conference to release a
massive 3-year study of the feasibility of attacking a ballistic
missile while its rockets are still firing - the first layer of
the president's missile defense plan.  Rockets may be easy to
spot, but even if it's forty-year old technology, boost phase
only lasts four minutes; newer solid-fuel rockets, maybe three.
Conclusion?  You're not gonna get there in time.  And even if you
could, countermeasures are easy.  In other words, the best boost-
phase interceptor would be obsolete as soon as it's built.  The
study's authors studiously declined to draw policy implications.
What's New is under no such constraint.  As one physicist who
read the report put it, "Even if it would work it wouldn't work,
but it won't work."  A week before release of the APS study, the
Senate slashed funding for boost-phase interceptor development.  

2. PRIVACY: SENATE DROPS "TERRORISM INFORMATION AWARENESS" (TIA).
A provision in the 2004 Defense Appropriations Act prohibits R&D
on the controversial TIA Program ("T" used to stand for "Total"). 
The White House urged the Senate to remove the provision, calling
TIA "a potentially important tool in the war on terrorism."

3. MINI-NUKES: THE HOUSE DOES A LITTLE CUTTING TOO.  The House
Energy and Water Development Subcommittee unexpectedly denied
(Continue reading)

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What's New | 25 Jul 2003 20:24
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WHAT'S NEW Friday, 25 Jul 03

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 25 Jul 03   Washington, DC

(Andrew Essin contributed to this issue of What's New.)

1. DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS: 9 YEARS AND 100 DEATHS LATER.  The 1994
Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act left the industry
almost unregulated, exempting manufacturers from proving safety
or effectiveness.  If you have never used the WN search engine,
start now.  Go to www.aps.org/WN/ , type in "Dietary Supplement."
The current scandal involving the herbal supplement ephedra
erupted with the death of Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler (WN 14
March 2003).  It may bring about a change; Secretary of Health
and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, asked the Congress on
Wednesday to revise the law to give the FDA greater authority.

2. CLIMATE CHANGE: NOW HERE'S THE PLAN, WE STUDY THE PROBLEM. 
Yesterday, the Administration released its Climate Change Science
Program, a draft of which was circulated in December (WN 6 Dec
2002).  The White House is sticking to its standard solution:
wring your hands about the problem and call for more research. 
In all, the various agencies spent a year and a half putting the
plan together.  The aim is to address the most crucial questions
in the next four years.  It's hard to object to a call for more
research, but we seem to be using science to stall action.  

3. VOTING MACHINES: "HANGING CHAD" WASN'T SO BAD.  There is no
way to independently verify results of electronic voting machines
that run on proprietary code (WN 25 April 03).  Worse yet, teams
at Johns Hopkins and Rice analyzed one leading company's system
and found gaping holes in security, leaving the system open to
(Continue reading)

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