WHAT'S NEW Friday, 30 May 03

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 30 May 03   Washington, DC

1. WASN'T THE WAR TO RID IRAQ OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION?
Remember the televised presentation of Secretary of State Powell
to the UN Security Council in February laying out the massive
body of intelligence on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction? 
That was the justification for going ahead with the war without
the United Nations.  OK, so the aluminum tubes, which Powell said
were for a centrifuge, were in fact for rocket launchers, and
maybe documents describing Iraq's efforts to acquire uranium
turned out to be fake.  And those trucks the Army found in Iraq,
initially described as mobile bio-weapons facilities, contained
no trace of biological agents.  Thus far, no trace of weapons of
mass destruction has been found, but we know they had them, so
the war to rid Iraq of such weapons has been a total success.

2. COLUMBIA: INVESTIGATION BOARD LOOKS INTO USE OF CONTRACTORS.
It has been reported that at the time of the Columbia crash there
were no NASA employees in the mission control center.  The United
Space Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed and Boeing, is the
main contractor, and runs all facets of shuttle operations.  Adm.
Harold Gehman, head of the investigation board, points out that
United Space Alliance gets a bonus for launching on time.  There
is no bonus for delaying a launch out of safety concerns.  

3. SHUTTLE: LOOKS LIKE MORE OF THE SAME OLD THING.  The new NASA
space shuttle manager, William Parsons, an engineer from the
University of Mississippi, who has been heading the Stennis Space
Center in Mississippi, is focused on getting the remaining fleet
of three shuttles back into operation as soon as possible.  He
says he'll run things like his predecessor, Ron Dittemore.  Any
hope that NASA or Congress might take a hard look at the value of
microgravity research, which is used to justify the shuttle and
the International Space Station, is fading.

4. IRRADIATED FOOD: WILL SCHOOL LUNCHES STAY WITH THE HOT DOGS? 
The Agriculture Department announced that local school districts
will have the option to use irradiated ground beef in school
lunches in 2004.  The use of irradiation to kill E. coli on beef
was approved by the FDA six years ago (WN 5 Dec 97), but there
are consumer groups that continue to claim the process may lead
to cancer and birth defects.

5. GAS GUZZLERS: TAX BILL INCLUDES A BREAK FOR MONSTER SUVs. 
Language in yesterday's tax deal making the cost of heavy pickup
trucks fully tax deductible immediately for small businesses will
also apply to humongous luxury SUVs weighing more than 6000 lbs. 
Meanwhile, a low-income child credit provision that would have
benefitted many low-income working families was dropped to stay
within the $350B limit.  As a House Ways and Means Committee
spokesman explained, "adjustments had to be made."

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND and THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY.  
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the
University or the American Physical Society, but they should be.
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