> [Original Message] > From: What's New <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 1/13/2006 10:07:50 PM Subject: [BOBPARKS-WHATSNEW] What's New Friday January 13, 2006
WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 13 Jan 06 Washington, DC 1. OIL: ONE WAY OR THE OTHER, ALASKAN WILDLIFE PAYS THE PRICE. Congress said no to ANWAR, not much is flowing out of Iraq, and we're not doing business with Iran. The solution is to open up 389,000 acres in Alaska that had been off-limits to energy development. This time it's migratory birds that will suffer. But energy problems are great for zero-point energy scams. 2. BLACKLIGHT POWER: SOME IDEAS ARE SIMPLY TOO DUMB TO DIE! Since 1991, http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN91/wn042691.html , WN has followed the strange case of the "hydrino," tiny hydrogen atoms in a "state below the ground state," according to Randell Mills, M.D., author of The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Quantum Mechanics. We haven't heard much about Mills and his company, BlackLight Power, since they lost a patent appeal three years ago http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN02/wn090602.html . But with the start of the new year, Dow Jones Newswires ran a story about deep-pocket financial gurus that are backing BlackLight. A> retired head of energy banking at Morgan Stanley commented that physicists are "hostile" to Mills ideas. Bob Park, was the only physicist quoted. Sure enough, he was hostile. "Park represents an entrenched physics establishment that fears losing billions in funding and having its work discredited," Mills explained. 3. CREATIONISM: KITZMILLER V. DOVER SCHOOL BOARD DIDN'T END IT. Who thought it would? In Dover, the issue was that intelligent design was misrepresented as science. So why not misrepresent it as something else? In Lebec, CA, a course on the Origins of Life is listed as Philosophy, but it's still intelligent design. The Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta, CA is suing the University of California for not giving credit for courses with a "Christian viewpoint." At Calvary Chapel, that's everything but mathematics. In Ohio, they don't bother to disguise it. The Board of Education voted to keep a controversial biology lesson, Critical Analysis of Evolution, that tells students to examine "alternate theories of evolution." Lamarckian perhaps? In a fundraising letter, Discovery Institute founder Phillip Johnson dropped all pretense, "our ultimate goal is to affirm God and defeat Darwinism...to shape public policy in accordance with conservative Christian philosophy and get it into our schools." 4. SCIENCE ADVISORY PANELS: POLITICAL LITMUS TESTS ARE OUTLAWED. The NIH funding bill, signed into law on 30 Dec 05, contains a measure inserted by Richard Durbin (D-IL) to prevent political interference in scientific decisions. There are some 1,000 federal advisory panels that examine science issues, such as safe drinking water standards. In 2004, the National Academy of Sciences had found that nominees to these panels were often questioned about their political affiliations and voting history. The new law makes it illegal to ask such questions of nominees, however, it provides no penalties if the ban is violated. 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
