What's New Friday 26 April 09 Washington, DC

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 26 Jun 09   Washington, DC

1.  ENERGY: IF YOU CAN MAKE ENERGY, IT CAN GET LOOSE.
According to Jim Glanz in Wednesday’s New York Times, an earthquake shook 
Basel, Switzerland on December 8, 2006, damaging buildings and terrifying 
the residents.  It had been 650 years since an earthquake toppled the 
towers of the Basil cathedral.  This time at least it was not the hand of 
God.  In an effort to produce almost limitless clean energy, a hole had 
been drilled 3 miles deep, fracturing the bedrock that separates Earth's 
crust from its molten interior.  Water was heated by passing it through the 
fractured rocks.  The project shut down immediately, but many smaller 
quakes continue to rattle the residents.   A similar project to harness 
geothermal energy is underway in Sonoma County, CA. 

2.  NO ENERGY: THERE ARE MANY IDEAS, BUT SOME WON’T WORK.
Orbo, a perpetual motion machine promised by the Steorn Company in Dublin, 
is one of them. You will recall that Orbo was to be demonstrated a year ago 
at the Kinetica Museum in London www.bobpark.org/WN07/wn070607.html.  It 
didn't work.  Steorn blamed the air-conditioning, and said the 
demonstration would be delayed a few weeks.  Well, 50 weeks later, Steorn 
says they fixed the problem.  Not unless they’ve changed the first law of 
thermodynamics. Meanwhile, a jury of scientists convened by Steorn has 
issued a unanimous verdict: Steorn had "not shown the production of energy."

3.  POPULATION:  THE BOMB IS STILL TICKING.
Libertarians are fond of pointing out that John Holdren, the President's 
science adviser, collaborated with Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich (The 
Population Bomb).  Shocking!  Ehrlich’s best-selling 1968 book predicted 
mass starvation by the end of the 20th century due to unconstrained 
population growth.  Ironically, the major health problem in the US today is 
an obesity epidemic.  But not everyone lives in the US.  Two technological 
developments postponed the looming catastrophe: the green revolution for 
which Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, and the Pill. In 
most industrialized countries the Pill has brought the fertility rate down 
to about 2.1, needed for a stable population. In Muslim nations however, 
which suppresses women’s rights, fertility is as high as 8.0 
(Afghanistan).  

4.  DEATH: MYSTERIOUS INTERNATIONAL NEWS BLACKOUT.
As I have done every Friday morning for 25 years, I arose at 5 AM this 
morning to scan newspapers and television channels to find out what was 
happening in my world that I should be aware of in composing WN.  Alas, 
there was no news on television.  ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN were all dolefully 
mourning Michael Jackson's unexpected death.  Damn!  It was international; 
even BBC and Al Jazeera. They said he was a singer, but I don't recall ever 
hearing him sing.  

5.  BIRTH: TODAY MARKS THE 25TH BIRTHDAY OF WHAT’S NEW.
That adds up to 1299 issues.  (There was no 8 Sep 2000 issue, the week the 
tree fell.)  The archives, however, go back only to 1991.   Technology 
changes required issues prior to 1996 to be retyped to enter them in the 
archives. Before that could be completed, the dedicated and capable 
secretary who took on the project in her spare time was fired.

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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