What's New Friday August 10, 2007

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 10 Aug 07   Washington, DC

1. COMPETES: BUSH SIGNS $33.6 BILLION AUTHORIZATION BILL.
By the time the President signed the landmark measure, Congress was 
already scurrying out of town.  It is after all, August in Washington.  No 
one is left but the wonks.  If you have nothing better to do you can try 
to figure out what the COMPETES acronym stands for.  The bipartisan 
measure authorizes funds for science research, education and teacher 
training for the next few years. It’s a good thing.  Let’s see why we need 
more science:

2. ENDEAVOUR: NOT THE FIRST TIME IN SPACE FOR S. PNEUMONIAE.
School teacher Barbara Morgan, we’re told, has been busy using the camera 
on the robot arm to examine the shuttle skin for signs of damage from 
three pieces of foam that broke off the fuel tank on launch.  Not a word 
though on how Streptococcus pneumoniae is doing.  A vial of the pneumonia 
bacteria was taken up on Endeavour to study how microbes adapt to 
microgravity.  Are they kidding?  In the human space flight program this 
is called "science." Of course, S. pneumoniae have been to space many 
times before - they’re in the upper respiratory tract of 40% of the 
population.  Why didn’t they just swab the nasal passages of astronauts?

3. FREE ENERGY:  ALL THAT’S NEEDED IS A "WATER SPLITTER."  
A WN reader sent me the URL of a YouTube video about a device that uses 
water as fuel by splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen and then burning 
the hydrogen.  Back in the 1970’s Sam Leach drove a car that ran on water 
across the country.  The oil barons bought him off.  In his 2004 State-of-
the-Union address, President Bush announced that Freedom Car, which runs 
on hydrogen, would give us energy independence.  Uh, where is that car?  
Bush didn’t have a Water Splitter or the oil-barons bought him off.  

4. ETHANOL: DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SEES HUGE CORN HARVEST.  The oil 
barons must be trembling.  The corn harvest is expected to be up 24 
percent to meet ethanol goals.  That takes lots of fertilizer.  The summer 
dead zone off Louisiana’s coast, caused by farm runoff, is spreading down 
the Texas coast; the price of corn is pushing up the price of beef; and 
hunger grows in poor areas of Mexico where corn tortillas are a staple.

5. THE MEMORY OF WATER: EARMARK FOR "INFORMATION BIOLOGY."
I’m told the defense spending bill earmarks $2 million for the Samueli 
Institute for Information Biology.  Its Director Wayne Jonas, is author of 
Healing with Homeopathy.  Jonas believes water remembers the stuff you 
diluted away.  My water comes from the Potomac River; I would prefer that 
it not remember.

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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