What's New Friday June 20, 2008

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 20 Jun 08   Washington, DC

1.  OSTP: URGENT RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE NEXT PRESIDENT.
On Monday, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars held a 
media briefing to release a report, "OSTP 2.0, Critical Upgrade."  Drawing 
on the advice of former Presidential Science Advisors, the report calls on 
the next President to:
1) Name a Cabinet-level Assistant for Science and Technology Policy early, 
2) Integrate OSTP with other policymaking bodies in the White House, and 
3) Establish mechanisms to obtain expert advice in a timely manner.  
Above all, the Science Advisor must have easy access to the President.  
Written by some of the smartest science-policy experts in Washington, the 
report refrains from bashing the current OSTP.  What’s New is under no 
such restraint.

2.  SHELL GAME: PRESIDENTIAL POWER AND THE HYDROGEN HOAX.
In his 2003 State-of-the-Union Address, President Bush promised to free us 
from dependence on oil from the Middle-East and clean up our environment 
by using hydrogen as a fuel.  Oceans of hydrogen are available.  
Presidents are not required to be familiar with the first law of 
thermodynamics, but the willingness of industry to play along is 
frightening.  Within months, GM had a hydrogen car driving around Capitol 
Hill, and Shell had added a hydrogen pump at a nearby station.  This week 
Honda announced the Clarity, a highly-subsidized hydrogen fuel-cell car 
and said Jamie Lee Curtis is buying one.  She lives near one of the four 
hydrogen stations in California.  Today a NY Times editorial was mildly 
skeptical.  You can make cars that run on hydrogen, although they have big 
problems, but it won’t fix the energy problem or clean up the 
environment.  

 3.  RUNNING ON WATER: JAPANESE COMPANY UNVEILS CAR.
Sigh!  Genepax uses a membrane to breaks the water down into hydrogen and 
oxygen, and then uses the hydrogen as fuel.  A year ago there was a 
similar scam http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN07/wn081007.html .  Sam 
Leach did it in 1971, when gas was only $1.31 corrected for inflation.  He 
demonstrated his car, collected money from "investors," and then retired 
to an ocean-side villa in California.  Occasionally seen in a chauffer-
driven Rolls Royce that ran on gasoline, it was rumored that Leach had 
sold out to the oil barons.      

4.   CELL PHONES: THEY ALSO DON’T MAKE POPCORN POP.
Cell phones, WN has pointed out, can’t cause cancer, but several readers 
have directed me to a web site that purports to show cell phones popping 
corn.  "So how do you explain that, Mr. Smartypants?"  I couldn’t, but 
Wired reports that the hoax was the work of Cardo Systems, a company that 
markets low-power stuff. 

5.  SACRED LICENSE PLATES: I DON'T BELIEVE THEY’RE LEGAL.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State has filed suit to 
prevent the state of South Carolina from producing specialty license 
plates showing a cross superimposed on a stained glass window and bearing 
the words, "I believe."   It doesn’t say what is believed in but we can 
assume it’s not legalization of marijuana.    

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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