Forward from [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Akira Kawasaki) > [Original Message] > From: What's New <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 6/23/2006 2:00:44 PM Subject: [BOBPARKS-WHATSNEW] What's New Friday June 23, 2006
WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 23 Jun 06 Washington, DC 1. MISSILES: THE DEFENSE SYSTEM IS COMMENSURATE WITH THE THREAT. President Bush pledged a ballistic missile defense in place by the end of 2004. By election time, interceptors were snug in their silos, http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN04/wn102204.html . It worked perfectly -- not a single ballistic missile has fallen on the U.S. since. However, North Korea is now threatening to test a new ballistic missile capable of reaching our mainland. In response the U.S. "activated" the system. Bring it on! Wait, you mean we've been spending $10B a year for a system that wasn't on? "Leaving it on would cost even more," I was told. Besides, it's never been tested against a surprise missile, it was bad enough when we knew the exact launch time and trajectory. 2. CONSPIRACIES: PHYSICIST'S NEW THEORY IS AS GOOD AS HIS FIRST. A few weeks ago a cab picked me up at the U. of Wisconsin Physics Dept. to take me to the airport. The driver began, "You a physicist? I like physics. You know this guy Steven Jones? He's a physicist. He proved the World Trade Center couldn't have fallen that fast on 9/11 unless it was rigged with explosives." I'd heard it before. Today there's a good story about Jones and the 9/11 "conspiracy" by John Gravois in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Seventeen years ago Steven Jones imagined that cold fusion is responsible for Earth's molten interior. That's what led Fleischmann and Pons to rush into print with their dumb idea. 3. HEAT: MAYBE GLOBAL WARMING DENIERS ARE CONSPIRACY THEORISTS. The 1999 Mann Report concluded that the 1990s were the warmest decade in a thousand years. It helped solidify public concern over warming. It also infuriated many Republican lawmakers and industry groups. At the request of the House Science Committee, the National Academies reviewed the Report, and agreed with the overall thrust. The same deniers objected to the review 4. LIES: REPLACING POLYGRAPHS WITH BRAIN IMAGING IS A BAD IDEA. WN has long recommended that the polygraph be replaced by a coin toss. It would catch half of the lies, which is a lot better than the polygraph. There would be a little "collateral damage" from false positives, but there's a lot of that anyway. However, the Wash Post on Tuesday had a story about discrepancies between polygraph results obtained by different federal agencies. Who could be surprised? We are forced to admit that the coin toss would suffer the same difficulty, presumably to the same extent. According to an editorial in yesterday's Nature, however, there are two start-up companies preparing to offer fMRI brain scanning devices as lie detectors. Many neuroscientists think the claims made for fMRI are overblown. Should company officials therefore be asked to submit to brain scans? That's the real problem. If it works, it would represent the ultimate invasion of privacy. 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
