From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4@msn.com)
Date: Sat Nov 09 2002 - 05:45:25 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: What's New
Sent: Friday, November 08, 2002 3:54 PM
To: What's New
Subject: WHAT'S NEW Friday, 08 Nov 02
WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 08 Nov 02 Washington, DC
1. CLIMATE CHANGE: ABOUT THAT BEACH-FRONT PROPERTY YOU BOUGHT...
Unlike previous climate talks, the talks in New Delhi, which ended last
Friday,
addressed ways of coping with a warmer world in addition to emission
controls (WN 25
Oct 02). Both are needed. No matter what we do to limit emissions,
climate change
models predict continued warming for maybe 100 years from gases we've
already put in
the atmosphere. So what became of the Climate Change Vulnerability and
Resilience
Program, introduced by Rep. J.C. Watts, Jr. (WN 14 Jun 02)? It had
seemed like a
sure thing: the Oklahoma congressman was chair of the powerful House
Republican
Conference, and because the bill didn't call for increased regulation, it
attracted industry
backers. But a month later, Watts announced he was not running for
reelection. His
phone stopped ringing, and his bill disappeared from the agenda.
Emissions must
eventually be cut, of course, and the Bush Administration is pursuing a
program of
"voluntary reductions" by industry. But meanwhile, you might want to
think about
moving the sump pump from the basement to the first floor.
2. IRRADIATED MEAT: RISK PERCEPTION AND THE AMERICAN HAMBURGER.
Several grocery chains are gambling that consumers, spooked by recent
outbreaks of
illness and death from E.coli and listeria bacteria, may at last be ready
to try irradiated
ground beef. Past attempts to introduce consumers to irradiated foods
fell victim to the
exaggerated fear of anything "atomic," but the two largest meat recalls in
history may
have changed that. The supermarket experiment will test whether the very
real risk of
bacterial contamination can overcome the public's irrational fear of
radiation.
3. NASA: BOOK WILL CLAIM AMERICAN ASTRONAUTS LANDED ON THE
MOON. While half the population is convinced Earth is being visited by
space aliens
who have mastered faster-than light travel, others are equally convinced
that we
humans never even made it as far as the moon. The problem, if it is a
problem, got a
lot worse after the Fox television network aired "Conspiracy Theory: Did
We Land on
the Moon?" last year. Maybe it was put together by the same people who
fabricated
"Alien Autopsy" (WN 11 Dec 98). NASA revealed its incredibly thin skin,
hiring
aeronautics engineer James Oberg to write a monograph that will say we
really did land
on the moon. Well that should settle it. What a headline it will make:
"NASA Finds
Astronauts Landed on the Moon in 1969."
4. THE SNIPERS: THE THIN VENEER OF CIVILIZATION. Six states and the
District
of Columbia have been locked in an appalling struggle over which would get
to carry out
the executions. The referee was Attorney General John Ashcroft. Virginia
won the
honor hands down. Not only has Virginia conducted more executions than any
other
state except Texas, it has an impressive record of trying teenagers as
adults.
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.
--- Archives of What's New can be found at http://www.aps.org/WN. You are currently subscribed to whatsnew as: <ljk4@msn.com> To unsubscribe, send a blank e-mail to: <leave-whatsnew-33035Q@lists.apsmsgs.org> To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to: <join-whatsnew@lists.apsmsgs.org>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Sat Nov 09 2002 - 05:59:56 PST