What's New - Bob Park


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Topic: Science > Physics
User: "Sam Wormley"
Date: 02 Apr 2004 02:20:54 PM
Object: What's New - Bob Park
Ref: http://www.aps.org/WN/WN04/wn040204.cfm
What's New - Bob Park
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 (WN
24 Oct 03). 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.
Bob Park can be reached via email at

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the
University, but they should be.
.

User: "Michael Varney"

Title: Re: What's New - Bob Park 02 Apr 2004 03:04:30 PM
"Sam Wormley" <swormley1@mchsi.com> wrote in message
news:406DCB25.B1969F65@mchsi.com...

Ref: http://www.aps.org/WN/WN04/wn040204.cfm
What's New - Bob Park

<SNIP>

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.

Wow... this is at least the second time Bob Park has written about one of my
"stupidity" subjects. I must be psychic!
.
User: "Sam Wormley"

Title: Re: What's New - Bob Park 02 Apr 2004 03:46:07 PM
Michael Varney wrote:


"Sam Wormley" <swormley1@mchsi.com> wrote in message
news:406DCB25.B1969F65@mchsi.com...

Ref: http://www.aps.org/WN/WN04/wn040204.cfm
What's New - Bob Park

<SNIP>

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.


Wow... this is at least the second time Bob Park has written about one of my
"stupidity" subjects. I must be psychic!

Woah... I wouldn't go THAT far! :-)
.



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