forward from [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Akira Kawasaki) > [Original Message] > From: What's New <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 4/28/2006 1:51:40 PM Subject: [BOBPARKS-WHATSNEW] What's New Friday April 28, 2006
WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 28 Apr 06 Washington, DC 1. LEAKS: THE CONFLICT BETWEEN DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNMENT SECRECY. CIA officer Mary McCarthy denies having disclosed the existence of CIA-run prisons in Eastern Europe for suspected terrorists. But if she did leak it, she deserves the gratitude of every American. As Americans learned of Nazi atrocities in WWII, the usual reaction was, "they couldn't get American boys to do that." Now we outsource it. Conscientious government employees, willing to risk their careers by leaking classified information Americans should know about, may be the only check on government excesses carried out behind the curtain of national security. Governments everywhere love official secrecy; it gives them total control over information flow. President Bush doesn't leak. As former White House press secretary Scott McClellan explained, anything the President says publically is automatically declassified. 2. PASSING GAS: MAYBE HIGH GASOLINE PRICES AREN'T THE PROBLEM. The outcry over the price at the pump has politicians scurrying to come up with immediate relief: Republican Senators proposed putting a $100 bill under everybody's pillow. This is direct and simple. In fact, it's the perfect response to every complaint, not just high gas prices. Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) called for a 60- day suspension of the federal tax on fuel. That'll work too, but people will be even happier if we make it permanent. After all, the national debt is so far out of control it no longer matters. Republicans also want to start exploring for oil in wildlife refuges. That won't help much in the short term, but a chance to screw environmentalists doesn't come up every day. In short, American ingenuity will find a way. Or we could just let gas prices rise a little, but that might encourage a change to more fuel efficient cars, public transportation, getting a little exercise, cleaner air, shorter commutes, less traffic... 3. PARTICLE PHYSICS: IT'S TIME TO GET BEYOND THE SUPERCOLLIDER. On Wednesday, 13 years after the death of the SSC on a Texas prairie, an NRC committee chaired by Harold Shapiro released its report on Elementary Particle Physics in the 21st Century. To no one's surprise, the report urges the United States to "seize the opportunity to lead" and host the next particle accelerator. The world's most powerful accelerator at Fermilab will shut down by 2010. By that time the LHC in Geneva will be in operation. The location of an even more powerful accelerator, the International Linear Collider (ILC), has not been decided but the committee clearly believes it should be in the United States. 4. WHICH WAY IS MECCA? AND FOR THAT MATTER, WHAT TIME IS IT? Malaysia is preparing to send one of its citizens to the ISS in 2007 on a Russian mission. It will probably be a Muslim, so a computer program called Muslims in Space has been developed to answer these weightless questions. It wouldn't be the first time an astronaut has prayed, but others haven't needed a computer. 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 What's New is moving to a different listserver and our subscription process has changed. To change your subscription status please visit this link: http://listserv.umd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=bobparks-whatsnew&A=1
