Sept. 15, 2006 > [Original Message] From: What's New <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 9/15/2006 2:23:49 PM Subject: [BOBPARKS-WHATSNEW] What's New Friday September 15, 2006
WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 15 Sep 06 Washington, DC 1. PROLIFERATION: IAEA DISPUTES HOUSE COMMITTEE REPORT ON IRAN. Who would have thought that relations between the U.S. and the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency could get worse? The IAEA complains that a House Intelligence Committee staff report, "contains erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated information" about Iran's nuclear program. Sound familiar? A caption in the House report says Tehran is "enriching uranium to weapons grade," but the facility shown only enriches to 3.6%, enough for power production, but far from the level needed for weapons. Before the U.S. invaded Iraq, the IAEA had insisted, despite American objections, that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, and later showed that some White House claims were based on forged documents. After the fall of the Saddam government, the U.S blocked IAEA inspections of damage to Iraq's nuclear facilities. But in a stunning vindication of the IAEA, Mohammed ElBaradei, director general of IAEA, was awarded the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN05/wn100705.html . 2. SPACE: INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION UNFURLS NEW SOLAR PANELS. The world's most expensive scientific laboratory installed additional solar panels yesterday, capable of producing 100 kilowatts or so of additional power for experiments. The panels cost $372 million to build, and about three times that much to send up to the ISS. Stand by for important new results. The only unique feature of a space environment is micro-gravity. One of the things you could study in micro-gravity is cavitation in spherical drops of water. A paper just published in Phys. Rev. Lett. reports important new insights from such studies except the experiments weren't done in space. They were done on a European Space Agency aircraft flying in parabolic arcs. 3. THIRD GREAT AWAKENING: BUSH SEES REVIVAL OF RELIGIOUS DEVOTION. The President told a group of conservative journalists this week that the "confrontation between good and evil" in the struggle with international terrorism has led to a revival of religious devotion. He believes it to be the Third Great Awaking. That may be, we secular types could fail to notice a revival or two, but according to Wikipedia we've already had four Great Awakenings. A survey released yesterday by Baylor University, however, does find Americans to be more active in religion than supposed. Baylor is a strict Baptist college in Waco, Texas. It was a frequent target of the late 19th century journalist William Cowper Brann, who published The Iconoclast. Brann's style was much like that of H.L. Mencken a generation later, and the Iconoclast had world-wide circulation. He printed frequent exposes of prominent Waco and Baylor citizens, and was shot to death on a Waco street. 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
