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Robert Park | 7 May 2011 22:04
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What's New Robert L. Park 1 April 2011

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 6 May 2011   Washington, DC

1.  GRAVITY PROBE B: EXPERIMENT CONFIRMS THAT SCIENCE IS OPEN.
It took 52 years and $750 Million, but the Stanford-based analysis group 
and NASA announced on Wednesday that the data from GP-B does indeed confirm 
two key predictions of Albert Einstein's 1916 general theory of 
relativity:  the geodetic effect of space-time warping around a massive 
object, which we perceive as gravity, and the frame-dragging effect caused 
by mass-energy currents, called gravitomagnetism in beautiful analogy with 
Maxwellian electromagnetism.   The findings were published online in 
Physical Review Letters.  Of what value is it?  Above all it confirms that 
science is open.  The success and credibility of science are anchored in 
the willingness of scientists to expose ideas and results to independent 
testing and replication. Had they gotten a different result, textbooks 
covering the subject would be rewritten.  More than 100 PhD candidates 
worked on some aspect of the gravity probe B experiment.  They are of the 
measure of its value to society.

2.  CHARLES: SO WHO ELECTED HIM PRINCE?
I was still recovering from a serious overdose of royals when I learned 
that the Prince of Wales was in Washington, DC this week to promote 
sustainable farming.  Back in the UK, the Daily Mail charged Prince Charles 
with secretly lobbying ministers for homeopathic medicines on the NHS. The 
NHS spends millions of pounds each year on alternative medicine at a time 
when it’s restricting proven lifesaving drugs for those with cancer.  The 
most popular cold medication in the world is Oscillococcinum; the active 
ingredient is Anas Barbariae Hepatis et Cordis Extractum (extract of liver 
and heart of the Barbary duck) 200CK HPUS.  The 200CK means the solution 
has been diluted 1 part in 100, shaken, and repeated sequentially 200 
times.  HPUS means the medication is listed in the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia
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Robert Park | 14 May 2011 15:00
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What's New Robert L. Park 14 May 2011

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 13 May 2011   Washington, DC

1. VERHULST EQUATION: BEWARE OF A STABLE POPULATION.
A kindly Vicar in rural Surry, the Reverend Robert Thomas Malthus was the 
first to solve the population equation.  In 1798, dismayed by the 
inevitable consequences of exponential growth, he published An Essay on the 
Principle of Population anonymously.  It went on to become one of the most 
important books of all time, and he added his name to subsequent editions.  
Forty years later, a Belgian mathematician, Pierre-Francois Verhulst, added 
a term to the Malthus differential equation to reflect the finite "carrying 
capacity," or the number of individuals an environment can support.  There 
are only two ways to stabilize the population: reduce the fertility rate, 
or shorten life expectancy.  A believer in human perfectibility, Malthus 
elected to reduce fertility by abstinence — he didn't get many followers.  
But today we have the Pill, the development of which must in the long run 
be the most important technological advance of all time.  A week ago, the 
UN released a new world-population projection that reaches 10 billion in 
2100.  That's one billion more than it projected just three years ago.  How 
much confidence can you have in a 90 year projection if you're off by 15% 
in the first three years?  From a policy standpoint, it really doesn't 
matter.  The urgent task is to reduce the fertility rate as much as 
possible.  The world is already so far beyond sustainable that we needn't 
worry about overshooting.  Huge cultural/religious obstacles remain, 
particularly in Africa, where Nigeria is expected to surpass the United 
States as the third most populous nation in the world.  There is already a 
serious shortage of fresh water, phosphate rock, and fuel for mechanization 
to sustain the green revolution.  There will not be another green 
revolution.

2. RADIATION: DO CELL PHONES OPERATE IN THE CLASSICAL WAVE LIMIT?
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Robert Park | 23 May 2011 20:07
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What's New Robert L. Park 20 May 2011

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 20 May 2011   Washington, 

1. SORRY: I WAS A VICTIM OF CONVERGING DEADLINES.
Or could it be that I'm getting slower in my declining years?  Next week 
there won't even be a late WN.  I will be delivering an invited paper in 
Stockholm.

2. CELL PHONES: SANJAY GUPTA USES A WIRED EARPIECE.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, MD, the Chief Medical Correspondent for CNN, uses a wired 
earpiece to avoid radiating his brain with microwaves. I don't even use a 
cell phone, so am I safer than Sanjay Gupta?  No – not unless Sanjay keeps 
his cell phone in his pants pocket when he uses the earpiece.  Our gonads 
dangle in that silly scrotum to keep them slightly below body temperature, 
but they do seem dangerously exposed.  Microwaves from the cell phone might 
raise their temperature a bit.  The most that could happen would be an 
infinitesimal decrease in the fertility rate.  At least that's in the right 
direction.  Sanjay Gupta is a good writer, and he's probably a good 
doctor.  I listen to him whenever I can.  My mother would have said, "He's 
a REAL doctor," as opposed to the PhD scientist kind.  Trust me Mom, an 
M.D. is not a scientist.  

3. MORE CELL PHONES: WHAT THE MEDIA DIDN'T TELL YOU.
Here's the conversation I have several times a day with total strangers: 
Caller: do you use a wired earphone?  BP: No.  Caller: would it be too much 
trouble?  BP: No.  Caller: Wouldn’t you be safer?  BP: No.  Caller: How do 
you know?  BP: Quantum physics; all cancers are caused by mutant strands of 
DNA.  Electromagnetic radiation can't create mutant strands of DNA unless 
the frequency is at or higher than the blue limit of the visible spectrum – 
the near-ultraviolet.  The frequency of cell phone radiation is about 1 
million times too low.  Caller: Wow!  When did this news break?  BP: Albert
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