[Peace-discuss] Fwd: WHAT'S NEW Friday, April 02, 2004

[Morton K.Brussel]

{This report is a little off our beaten track, but it shows, I think, 
the nature of the times, and where our government is leading us. MKB}

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "What's New" <whatsnew at bobpark.org>
> Date: April 2, 2004 2:00:47 PM CST
> To: brussel at uiuc.edu
> Subject: WHAT'S NEW     Friday, April 02, 2004
> Reply-To: whatsnew at bobpark.org
>
> WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 2 Apr 04   Washington, DC
>
> 1. COLD FUSION: TRUE BELIEVERS SEE DOE REVIEW AS "VINDICATION."
> There hasn't been much to celebrate in the 15 years since the
> University of Utah held a press conference in Salt Lake City to
> announce the discovery of "cold fusion."  Although a brave little
> band of true believers continued to trumpet cold fusion, the band
> leader was publishing "Infinite Energy Magazine."  That made it
> pretty hard to take this stuff seriously.  Although there was no
> press release or announcement, DOE has apparently agreed to take
> a second look.  That's not really too surprising; not since the
> Reagan administration has unbridled technological optimism so
> dominated Washington decision making: missile defense, hydrogen
> cars, hafnium bombs, manned missions to Mars.  How are these
> other ventures doing?  Let's take a look at one.
>
> 2. THE HAFNIUM BOMB: THE DARPA MOTTO IS "HIGH RISK, HIGH PAYOFF."
> With DARPA support, a group led by Carl Collins at the U. of
> Texas at Dallas claimed to be able to trigger energy release from
> a hafnium-178 isomer using a dental X-ray machine.  As What's New
> reported last October, a group using the Advanced Photon Source
> at Argonne found no sign of the hafnium-178 isomer-triggering
> effect http://www.aps.org/WN/WN03/wn102403.cfm .  We thought that
> would be the end of it, but Sunday there was a long cover story
> on the hafnium-178 bomb in the Washington Post Magazine.  The
> people at DARPA seem to have the "high risk" thing down pretty
> well, but "high payoff" still seems to be a problem.
>
> 3. ANTI-TERRORISM: PSYCHIC TIP PROMPTS BOMB SEARCH OF AIRLINER.
> Last Friday, American Airlines Flight 1304 from Fort Myers, FL to
> Dallas was scrubbed.  The plane was searched with bomb-sniffing
> dogs.  A self-described psychic had called to say a bomb might be
> on the plane.  Should the psychic be charged with making a false
> police report?  The psychic no doubt acted out of a sense of
> concern for the lives of innocent passengers.  Being crazy is
> only crazy.  The Transportation Security Administration official
> who acted on the fantasy of a psychic was terminally stupid.
>
> 4. MANAGING THE NEWS: HOW LIBYA'S NUCLEAR EFFORT WAS EXAGGERATED.
> By any measure, Libya's unilateral decision to drop its nuclear
> weapons program was very good news, but spin doctors are never
> satisfied.  Two weeks ago 45 journalists were flown by chartered
> jet to DOE's Y-12 complex in Oak Ridge to listen to DOE Secretary
> Abraham, who stood beside a pile of centrifuge components from
> Libya. Guards with weapons at the ready stood by. The implication
> was that Libya was close to making a bomb.  A week later, the New
> York Times disclosed that the casings lacked the finely tooled
> rotors to make them useful.  A DOE spokesperson shrugged, "Libya
> has tons of steel to make rotors."  Of course, and sculpting is
> just a matter of removing the unnecessary part of the stone.
>
> THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.
> Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
> University of Maryland, but they should be.
> ---
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