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What's New | 1 Jun 2007 23:16

What's New Friday June1, 2007

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

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

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

3. BELIEFS: BROWNBACK DEFENDS SCIENTIFIC ILLITERACY BY EXAMPLE.
A month ago at the Republican Presidential debate, there was a show of 
hands of those who don’t believe in evolution.  One who raised his hand,
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What's New | 9 Jun 2007 07:35

What's New Friday June1, 2007

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

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

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

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

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

5. STEM CELLS: POSSIBLE NEW SOURCE OF EMBRIONIC-LIKE CELLS?
Nature yesterday described a brilliant gene transfer method of reprogramming 
fetal mouse cells to be indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells.  Many 
mouse cures haven't carried over to humans.  What is sad is that it should be
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What's New | 15 Jun 2007 23:17

What's New Friday June 15, 2007

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 15 Jun 07   Washington, DC

1. COLLISION: LHC DELAYS STARTUP - TEVATRON DELAYS SHUTDOWN.
It’s now official: the LHC will not attempt a November startup.  Because 
electricity in Geneva is prohibitively expensive in the winter that puts 
it off until April.  Which opened up the possibility of keeping the 
Tevatron, at Fermilab in Batavia, IL running through 2010, giving the 
venerable accelerator an additional year to look for evidence of the 
legendary Higgs boson http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN07/wn033007.html .  
Perhaps when "the God particle" is confirmed it will inspire a new exhibit 
at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY - perhaps.    

2. CONSTRUCTION: WHY NOT JUST DECLARE THE ISS "FINISHED?"  
Today was supposed to be the day astronauts would stitch up a rip in a 
thermal blanket that tore on launch.  Atlantis is docked at the ISS on a 
13-day construction mission to install new segments of solar panels to 
enhance the energy supply in preparation for Europe’s Columbus module 
which is supposed to join the ISS later this year.  Plans changed when 
three Russian computers crashed.  The computers maintain orientation of 
the ISS and control oxygen levels.  The Russians think electrical noise 
from the new solar panels is to blame.  They did what you and I would do, 
they rebooted, but the computers re-crashed.  We all have days like this 
with our computers.  In space it leads to scary talk about abandoning the 
ISS.  

3. CLIMATE: CRUCIAL HURRICANE SATELLITE IS AT RISK.
The Associated Press this week quoted a letter from the chief of NOAA to a 
Florida Congressman warning that although the aging QuikScat satellite 
could fail at any moment, replacement plans have been pushed back to 
2016.  Loss of QuikScat would seriously degrade predictions of the
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What's New | 22 Jun 2007 22:46

What's New Friday June 22, 2007

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 22 Jun 07   Washington, DC

1. STEM CELLS: BUSH DECLARES "ALL HUMAN LIFE IS SACRED."
Peace activists say the same thing.  The President said this while issuing 
his second-annual summer-solstice-veto of legislation to lift his ban on 
embryonic stem cell research.  He said that the United States is "founded 
on the principle that all human life is sacred" – unless you’re in Iraq, 
where 80 American lives have been sacrificed so far this month.  I 
couldn’t find such a principle in the Constitution; instead I found the 
First Amendment.  By imposing his bizarre religious belief that embryonic 
stem cells are people on the rest of us, the President has violated the 
constitutional rights of every living, breathing American.  

2. POPULATION: HOUSE REVERSES BAN ON CONTRACEPTION AID.
Before you applaud, it faces a veto, and there are not enough votes for an 
override.  The ban is a key element of Bush foreign policy, though why the 
U.S. opposes birth control in other countries is beyond comprehension.  
Uncontrolled population growth will, in time, overtake every advance in 
human condition.

3. MILEAGE: SENATE VOTES TO RAISE FUEL ECONOMY STANDARDS.
With Detroit howling, the Senate yesterday passed the first substantial 
increase in fuel mileage requirements in more than two decades.  It would 
raise the combined average mileage of cars and light trucks from 25 mpg to 
35 mpg.  If we already had that kind of mileage we wouldn’t need oil from 
the Middle East. 

4. RELIABLE REPLACEMENT WARHEAD: HOUSE SAYS NO NEW NUKES.
In its present form, the appropriations bill eliminates RRW funding and 
calls for development of a nuclear weapons strategy before any new
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What's New | 29 Jun 2007 23:52

What's New Friday June 29, 2007

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 29 Jun 07   Washington, DC

1. 1984: WHAT’S NEW WAS BORN ON THIS DAY, 23 YEARS AGO.
WN was in Orwellian peril from the start.  My wife asked how long I 
planned to keep writing this thing. "Not long," I said, "if I tell it like 
I see it, they’ll end it in a year."  After I became director of the new 
Washington Office, the APS Council asked me to make my weekly report 
public - but not advertise it.  Some wanted Big Brother to approve each 
issue before it went out.  If so, someone else would have to write it.  
Much later I agreed to add a disclaimer - not everyone liked that either.  
After more than 1,200 issues and growth from 112 subscribers to 15,617, 
APS finally ended WN.  My department chair, however, asked that I continue 
writing WN, but with the University of Maryland as sponsor.  He made it my 
principal teaching assignment.   

2. MARS: EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY SEEKS VOLUNTEERS FOR A TEST.
Radiation is a major obstacle to human trips to Mars.  The ESA reminds us 
of a no less serious hazard: human nature.  There were serious disputes 
between cosmonauts on Mir after months in close confinement.  ESA is now 
seeking volunteers for a "simulated human trip to Mars."  A crew of six 
aged 25-50, in good health with “high motivation” will be sealed for 17 
months in an isolation tank here on Earth.  In contact only by radio with 
a realistic delay, they will do stuff a real crew would do (Try to stay 
alive?), but without microgravity or radiation.  Thousands applied.  
Tuesday, on Al Jazeera–English TV, I discussed a Mars mission with 
officials from ESA and the Royal Astronomical Society.  Why use humans 
rather than robots?  Humans would have faster reactions, they said.  
Reactions to what, I asked?  

3. BOOKS: "OUT OF THE SHADOWS," 20TH CENTURY WOMEN IN PHYSICS.
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