What's New by Bob Park -- Friday, September 17, 2004


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Topic: Science > Physics
User: "Sam Wormley"
Date: 17 Sep 2004 05:37:39 PM
Object: What's New by Bob Park -- Friday, September 17, 2004
Friday, September 17, 2004
1. MISSILE DEFENSE: YOU ARE TWICE AS SAFE AS YOU WERE LAST MONTH. A
second interceptor missile has been lowered into its silo in Fort
Greely, AK. Meanwhile, the flight test scheduled for late September has
been postponed another two months. It will then be two years since the
last flight test. It will also be after the election. I called on
General Persiflage at the Missile Defense Agency. "Shouldn’t we wait
to see if the system will work?" I asked. "It’s already working," the
general shrugged. "Our goal is to keep America safe. We put the first
interceptor in its silo in July, and there hasn’t been a missile
attack since." He had me there. I still felt a little uneasy, but
before I could ask another question, workmen came in carrying a huge
banner. "Where do you want us to hang this, General?" They unfurled the
banner, which read simply "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED."
2. NSF: BEMENT NOMINATION MAY BE A BRILLIANT MANAGEMENT STRATEGY. Or
maybe not. Earlier this year, when Rita Colwell left NSF before the end
of her 6-year term, it was expected that someone would be nominated
quickly to fill the job. In the meantime an acting director was named.
That sort of thing happens all the time, but the person picked as
acting director was Arden Bement, Jr., who already had a job as
director of NIST. Bement stayed on as director of NIST, moonlighting as
NSF acting director, with a nominee for NSF Director expected
momentarily. Under the 1998 Federal Vacancies Reform Act, Presidential
appointments to acting positions are limited to 210 days. That’s so
"acting" can’t be used to duck confirmation hearings. Time ran out on
Saturday with no nominee for NSF Director in sight, so Bush nominated
Bement. Here it gets a little confusing. In his announcement to the
NIST staff, Bement said he will remain as NIST Director until he is
confirmed by the Senate as NSF Director. Maybe it’s an experiment to
see if they can get by with half as many directors as agencies.
Meanwhile, NIST Deputy Director Hratch Semerjian becomes something.
NIST may have both a director and an acting director. We’re glad we
could clear this matter up for readers.
3. OPEN ACCESS: MEDICAL JOURNALS LAY IT OUT FOR DRUG COMPANIES. Several
leading medical journals will refuse to publish results of clinical
trials that haven’t been registered publicly. This follows disclosure
that drug makers withheld information about suicidal thoughts in
children and adolescents on antidepressants.
4. COLD FUSION: DOE REVIEW IS HIDDEN BEHIND A CLOAK OF SECRECY.
Believers see DOE’s review as vindication after 15 rough years (WN 2
Apr 04). But watchers are puzzled by how little is known about the
process. Who are the reviewers? Who are they talking to? WN hears that
DOE is claiming anonymous peer review. That shouldn’t please anyone.
The controversy will simply continue.
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: "Uncle Al"

Title: Re: What's New by Bob Park -- Friday, September 17, 2004 17 Sep 2004 06:23:58 PM
Sam Wormley wrote:


Friday, September 17, 2004

[snip]

3. OPEN ACCESS: MEDICAL JOURNALS LAY IT OUT FOR DRUG COMPANIES. Several
leading medical journals will refuse to publish results of clinical
trials that haven’t been registered publicly. This follows disclosure
that drug makers withheld information about suicidal thoughts in
children and adolescents on antidepressants.

[snip]
Why would anybody listen to crazy people? The objective is treatment
not cure, process not product. There is no money to be had in fixing
the problem - but lots to be had in making it worse or at least
different, and chronic either way chronically munificently reimbursed
by insurance plans sans clinical oversight.
Teenagers live without means in a toxic society filling their heads
with public school tripe. They have little hope for gainful
employment thereafter. They have no hope of avoiding massive income
redistribution by social advocacies - Baby Boomer retirees, Medicare,
slum bunnies... and infinite aid to cripples, poxy queers, and dear
friends of the politicos in power. Their going to the polls is a
farce. They will always be buried under wrinkles and purchased
loyalties (all of it financed with their State-confiscated dollars).
Teenagers shouldn't be suicidal, they should be murderous. Suicidal
is an eagerly cherished State goal not a problem.
--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/qz.pdf
.


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