What's New for Sep 13, 2002

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 13 Sep 02   Washington, DC

1. PERPETUAL MOTION: FAULTY WHEEL BEARING SPOILS DEMONSTRATION. 
Yes, it's another one.  Inventor Carl Tilley rented the Nashville
SuperSpeedway on Saturday to demonstrate his amazing electric
generator.  He took a 1981 DeLorean and replaced the engine with
a conventional electric motor.  The motor is connected to twelve
ordinary 12-volt batteries.  Here's the good part: the motor not
only runs the DeLorean, it also runs a generator that charges the
batteries, so the car just keeps going.  Can it do that?  Well,
not without a good generator.  As Tilley explains, "it utilizes
the generation of static electricity rather than cutting magnetic
fields which has been common practice to date."  Further details
are not available.  Eric Krieg, the relentless foe of perpetual
motion quacks at PHACT, the Philadelphia Association for Critical
Thinking, predicted that the DeLorean would suffer mechanical
failure after 25 miles or so.  Actually, Tilley stopped the
demonstration at 52 miles, explaining that a wheel bearing had
failed.  That happens when you lubricate bearings with snake oil.

2. TERRORISM: ABC SMUGGLES IN A MOCK NUCLEAR WEAPON - SORT OF. 
While the US is spending billions on missile defense, ABC News
shipped a simulated nuclear weapon from Istanbul to New York. 
The mock bomb contained 15 pounds of depleted uranium.  On the
Sept. 11 ABC Good Morning America program, Physicist Tom Cochran
of the Natural Resources Defense Council called it, "A perfect
mock-up. It replicates everything but the capability to explode." 
Well, not quite.  The U-238 in depleted uranium is far less
radioactive than the U-235 in weapons grade uranium, and thus is
much harder to detect.  Depleted uranium wouldn't even make a
good dirty bomb.  Nevertheless, the ABC stunt demonstrates that a
perfect missile defense would only ensure that anyone planning a
nuclear attack would use a simpler delivery system. 

3. RADIATION PROTECTION: PROTECT THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTS FIRST. 
Levi Strauss is introducing a new line of "Dockers" with pockets
that protect your testicles from the radiation produced by a cell
phone in the pocket.  If you carry your cell phone in a shielded
pocket, however, expect a sharp reduction in incoming calls.  For
the latest in protection devices, you have only to look in the
seat pocket on an airliner.  There with the airsickness bag, is a
catalog of really cool stuff marketed by the airline.  The latest
is a line of expensive wrist watches that contain Teslar Chips. 
The ad explains that the Teslar Chip will protect you from
harmful EMF and relieve stress.  Should you have any doubt, there
are Kirlian photographs showing increased energy around a finger,
induced by the Teslar chip.  Glen Rein, PhD. confirmed that the
Teslar Chip increased immune system components 76%. Dr. Scott
Morley, D.Sc.,PhD., MD showed it eliminated ambient EMF from his
patients.  I'm reaching for the airsickness bag now.

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.