What's New April 25, 2008

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday   25 Apr 08   Washington, DC

1. SPACE EXPLORATION: STEPHEN HAWKING BOLDLY WENT.
In a lecture at George Washington University on Monday, Professor Hawking 
marked the 50th anniversary of NASA by calling for increased emphasis on 
space exploration.  Such occasions seem to call for a little futuristic 
excess and Hawking obliged with a talk completely divorced from reality.  
Mars may harbor life but it won’t be very smart, so he wants to visit 
planets on other stars.  He compared people who think the trip would be 
too expensive to those who opposed the risky voyage of Columbus.  
Actually, Columbus was a careful man; had he possessed the technology he 
would probably have sent a drone first.  After all, he had miscalculated 
the Earth’s circumference.   It was a good thing he ran into America or 
they would have perished.  We know the distance to the stars much 
better.   They are very far away - so far that we aren’t going there.  The 
good news is that "they" aren’t coming here.

2. GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS:  PANIC PUTS PRESSURE ON ETHANOL.
Seemingly without warning, an additional 100 million people have been 
plunged into poverty by the abrupt increase in the price of food.  Most of 
the people on Earth could not dream of owning an automobile. For them the 
doubling of the price of wheat and rice is vastly more serious than $4 
gasoline.  Contributing to the severity is hoarding, the high price of 
fertilizer, a shortage of fresh water for irrigation, and yes, the 
diversion of food crops into bio-fuels.  It’s been thirty years since the 
world faced a food crisis of this magnitude, but no one seems willing to 
mention the Devil’s name.  A recent BBC report on the Sudan captured the 
crisis perfectly: "The reality is that there are more people in one 
refugee camp in Darfur today than there were in the whole of Darfur and 
Khordofan in the 1930’s!"  The problem is not too little food, but too 
many mouths.  No matter what advances are made in the human condition, 
they will eventually be lost if population is not constrained.

3. HUMAN RIGHTS: POPE BENEDICT XVI ADDRESSED THE UN.
Human rights, he said, "are based on the natural law inscribed on human 
hearts," and so indeed they are, although a scientist might prefer the 
term "instinctive."  Natural law also leads to women bearing children in 
refugee camps at a high rate in spite of crowding and suffering.  "The 
pill" offers a simple technology to prevent conception, however the Pope 
also warned against science that violates "the order of creation," which 
includes contraception.  In societies that grant equal rights to women, 
however, including availability of the pill, the population stabilizes.

4. POLYGRAPH:  ARMY ISSUES HAND-HELD POLYGRAPH.
In a story I’ve been sitting on for two weeks because it seemed too far 
out to be real, we must tell you that the Pentagon is issuing portable lie 
detectors to soldiers in Afghanistan.  It can’t be used on U.S. personnel, 
but they don’t lie anyhow.  It has two electrodes to measure conductivity 
of skin and a finger clip that monitors heartbeat.  It sells for $7,500.  
What’s New is prepared to certify that it works exactly as well as the non-
portable version.  

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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