What's New Friday July 27, 2007

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 27 Jul 07   Washington, DC

1. STRANGELOVE: IT’S NOT THE WARHEADS THAT NEED REPLACING.
Last week the Bush administration delivered the U.S. Nuclear Weapons 
Strategy to Congress in the form of a document called Maintaining 
Deterrence in the 21st Century.  It’s an urgent call to get back into the 
bomb-building business.  Deterrence is a euphemism for retaliation - after 
all, nobody takes the Bush missile defense seriously.  The White House 
acknowledges that there are no known problems with the thousands of 
warheads in our stockpile.  None should be expected for 100 years 
according to a study by the JASON advisory group.  To be absolutely 
certain, however, the White House says we will have to resume underground 
testing - unless Congress funds the Reliable Replacement Warhead.  This is 
a new wrinkle in nuclear blackmail - the administration has elected to 
blackmail Congress.  The result of testing would be a wave of tests around 
the world.  Predictably, North Korea is angrily charging the U.S. with a 
double standard, just as diplomacy seemed to have made progress in getting 
them to shut down their plutonium production reactor.

2. THE RIGHT STUFF: MARS ROVERS PULLED OVER FOR BREATHALYZER.
Actually, Spirit and Opportunity, are simply hunkered down on short 
rations with a massive dust storm cutting their sunlight. NASA’s problems 
are with human astronauts.  According to Aviation Week, an independent 
panel studying astronaut health reported that on at least two occasions 
unnamed astronauts had been launched into space in spite of being 
crocked.  No word on whether they were wearing diapers.  Meanwhile, there 
is a report of sabotage to a computer on Space Shuttle Endeavor, which is 
set for launch to the ISS on Aug 7. 

3. CLIMATE: SCIENCE MAGAZINE EDITOR DECLARES "GAME OVER."
Donald Kennedy’s editorial in today’s Science points out that we have 
passed the tipping point in the climate controversy.  He rightly 
attributes consensus to the "relentless progress of science."  Although 
most deniers attribute any climate change to solar variations, they never 
call for launching DSCOVR to monitor Earth’s albedo.  The deniers, Kennedy 
says, "retreat to the safety of the Wall Street Journal op-ed page."  
They’ve been there all along of course.  Who could forget the 1998 
petition drive headed by physicist Frederick Seitz opposing the Kyoto 
Accord? http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN98/wn031398.html  The petition 
card was accompanied by a WSJ op-ed that described increased levels of CO2 
in the atmosphere as "a wonderful and unexpected gift of the industrial 
revolution."  If Rupert Murdock takes over the WSJ, don’t look for 
improvement.

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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