What's New Friday August 14, 2007

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 14 Sep 07   Washington, DC

1. WARNING!  TURN OFF THE RADAR BEFORE THE OCEAN IGNITES.
All week long I’ve been getting URLs, for which I’m grateful, about some 
guy in Erie, PA who discovered a way to burn salt water.  It’s an AP 
story, but the warning signs are all there:  Described as a "cancer 
researcher," the protagonist built an RF generator with the idea of 
killing cancers by heating metallic nanoparticles injected into the 
cancer.  I guarantee that it’s possible to kill cancers with RF, along 
with the host.  Anyway, he’s not exactly a cancer researcher, he’s a 
retired TV station engineer who discovered that retirement sucks - but 
that’s been discovered before.  He then decided to see if his RF generator 
would desalinate water, but when he tried the water caught on fire.  He 
needed a scientist.  Instead, he found Rustum Roy, an emeritus chemistry 
professor at Penn State, who called it "the most remarkable discovery in 
water science in 100 years."  That would include "polywater," which Roy 
fell for 40 years ago.  Roy said that RF weakens chemical bonds, releasing 
hydrogen which burns.  It’s the Bush "hydrogen initiative" fallacy again 
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN03/wn013103.html .  Must I now lecture a 
chemistry professor on thermodynamics?  More energy is needed to free 
hydrogen than you get by burning it.  The story was shunned by major news 
outlets, except, of course, Fox News, which did point out that Rustum Roy 
is also "a specialist in holistic medicine and Christian sexuality."

2. CLIMATE CRAP: A SEQUEL BY THE "SKEPTICAL ENVIRONMENTALIST."
Bjorn Lomborg’s "Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global 
Warming" is out.  Well, yes it is getting warmer he finds, but aside from 
polar bears, it just means more beach weather.  We’ve got bigger problems, 
he says.  Instead of spending all that money trying to prevent warming, 
let’s focus on making everyone rich so they can all buy air conditioners.

3. CLIMATE RESEARCH: HOW WILL CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECT PEOPLE?
A National Research Council Report released yesterday, says that’s the big 
unanswered question.  The report laments that, "The loss of existing and 
planned satellite sensors is perhaps the greatest single threat" to 
climate research.  

4. A BIGGER PRIZE: THE GOOGLE LUNAR X PRIZE GOES ROBOTIC.
The $10M Ansari X Prize was so successful in bringing a few minutes of 
space sickness to the rich and bored that "The X Prize Foundation" decided 
to shoot for the Moon.  A $25M million prize, paid for by internet giant 
Google, would be for an unmanned Moon landing of a rover capable of 
traveling 550 yards.  

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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