WHAT'S NEW Friday, October 01, 2004

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park  Friday, 01 Oct 04  Washington, DC

1. KYOTO PROTOCOL: RUSSIA PUTS THE CLIMATE TREATY OVER THE
TOP.  Russia's cabinet endorsed the treaty and sent it to
Parliament, where approval is expected.  With 120 countries
already on board, this meets the requirement that the treaty
be ratified by nations responsible for at least 55 percent of
1990-level emissions.  Roald Sagdeev, former science advisor
to Gorbachev, was ecstatic on his return from Moscow
yesterday.  Now a physics professor at the University of
Maryland, he told WN last night that the effect the treaty
will have on emissions is far less important than the
recognition by signatories that climate change is an important
world problem, and they are committed to dealing with it. 
Having flatly rejected the treaty, the United States is now
isolated.

2. NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION: CANDIDATES DIFFER SHARPLY IN DEBATE. 
The moderator, Jim Lehrer, asked Kerry what he thought is the
most serious threat to national security. "Nuclear
proliferation, nuclear proliferation," Kerry responded
emphatically.  "To make it clear to the world that we're
serious about containing nuclear proliferation," he vowed to
shut down the current program to develop a nuclear bunker-
buster.  Bush responded that "we've increased funding for
dealing with nuclear proliferation about 35 percent since I've
been President."  Apparently, if the United States develops a
new nuclear weapon it's not proliferation.

3. ACUPUNCTURE: YOU DON'T HAVE TO KNOW WHERE THE RABBIT CAME
FROM
On TV's "Sex and the City" Charlotte, who was unable to
conceive, turned to acupuncture.  I read that in the Wall
Street Journal, but it didn't say whether it helped.  So I
turned to the experts on the WN staff.  Charlotte, they
assured me, ended up adopting.  I'm not surprised.  Of course,
even if she had become pregnant it wouldn't mean that
acupuncture helped.  You need a randomized, placebo-
controlled, double-blind study with good statistics to find
out what works and what doesn't.  And double-blind is hard to
do with needles.  But it wouldn't matter, I still wouldn't
believe it.  The trouble is it's silly.  Acupuncture, complete
with "meridians" that connect acupuncture points, and
moxibustion
http://www.aps.org/WN/WN98/wn111398.cfm , which applies heat
to the acupuncture points, predate vivisection by thousands of
years.  Well by 2004 they've looked: no features of our
anatomy correspond to any of this stuff.  They discovered
acupuncture before it was known that blood circulates, or that
germs cause disease.  But is there anything acupuncture
doesn't treat?  The Wednesday New York Times reported that
"acupuncture is moving toward the mainstream."  Mainstream
what?  When a stage magician pulls a rabbit out of a hat, I
may not know where the rabbit came from, but I know it's not
magic.  It's not science either.

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