What's New Robert L. Park 23 Oct 2011

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L.  Park   Sunday, 23 Oct 2011   Washington, DC

1. HEBDOMADAL: WHY DO WE SCHEDULE EVERYTHING WEEKLY?
For 30 years What=92s New was a Friday thing.  Oh, there were delays due =
to=20
server problems and stuff but we still put =93Friday=94 on the dateline. =
 In=20
2000 a rampaging red-oak (Quercus rubra) attacked Bob while he was joggin=
g,=20
scrambling both the calendar and Bob.  We called the day it went=20
out =93Friday.=94  However, the dateline of a column devoted to truth, sh=
ould=20
mean something.  Henceforth the dateline will show the day WN is actually=
=20
sent.   But why must it be weekly?   God put us on a seven day schedule s=
o=20
we could have a Fourth Commandment.  By now it=92s probably written in ou=
r=20
DNA.
=20
2. CELL PHONEYS: BRAIN CANCER LINK IS REJECTED =96 AGAIN.=20
Ten years ago, a brilliant Danish epidemiological study found no link=20
between mobile phone use and brain cancer (JNCI 2001, 93: 203-7).  A=20
decadal reexamination by Denmark=92s Institute of Cancer Epidemiology,=20
released last week, again found no link. The object of the new study was =
to=20
look for any evidence of latent cancer that had not yet shown up in 2001;=
=20
none was found.  In a 2001 JNCI editorial I pointed out that none would b=
e=20
expected, since microwave radiation is non-ionizing, Park, Robert L, JNCI=
=20
2001, 93: 166-167.   Can we now put the damned cell-phone/cancer scare=20
behind us?=20

3. CLIMATE: IT=92S TRUE; THE WORLD REALLY IS GETTNG WARMER.
The most comprehensive scientific review of historical temperature record=
s=20
ever carried out seems to remove any lingering doubts.  A group of=20
scientists at the University of  California, Berkeley find that the avera=
ge=20
global land temperature has risen by about 1C since the mid-1950s.  That=92=
s=20
big. The group has submitted four papers describing their findings to=20
Geophysical Research Letters.  It is unusual to circulate papers prior to=
=20
peer review, but Richard Muller, author of "Physics for Future Presidents=
,"=20
who heads the project, may have been influenced by the apparent attempts =
of=20
the energy industry to corrupt the scientific process, such as the hackin=
g=20
of private climate-files at the University of East Anglia =20
http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN09/wn121809.html .=20

4. STEVE JOBS: NEAR THE END, A LITTLE SCIENCE MIGHT HAVE HELPED.=20
Never a scholar, Steve Jobs didn=92t understand, or didn=92t believe, the=
 first=20
law of science: "Every observable effect has a physical cause."  Perhaps=20
the most profound insight of all time, causality is a total rejection of=20
the supernatural. According to his biographer, Walter Isaacson, whose=20
book, =93Steve Jobs,=94 will be out Monday, Jobs declined surgery when th=
e=20
cancer was detected and relied instead on acupuncture, herbs and=20
other "alternative therapies."  Eventually he regretted his decision, but=
=20
by then the cancer had spread. A week after the world mourned the death o=
f=20
Steve Jobs, the body of 70 year old Dennis Ritchie was found in his New=20
Jersey home, where he lived alone. The developer of the Unix Operating=20
System, Ritchie made Steve Jobs possible.=20

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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