From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Fri Aug 01 2003 - 13:14:30 PDT
----- Original Message -----
From: What's New
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2003 4:11 PM
To: What's New
Subject: WHAT'S NEW Friday, 1 Aug 03
WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 1 Aug 03 Washington, DC
(Andrew Essin contributed to this issue of What's New.)
1. THE POINDEXTER FILE: WOULD ANYONE CARE TO BET ON HIS FUTURE?
An $8M Pentagon plan to set up a futures market in Middle Eastern
developments was hastily scrapped when it was met with derision
and revulsion. Called the Policy Analysis Market, the plan was
to base intelligence judgements on betting patterns. Uh fellas,
the alleged predictive value of futures activity is merely a sign
of illegal insider trading. Anyway, the person in charge of this
fiasco, Adm. John Poindexter, has already been banished. That's
good, but here's an insider trading tip: John Poindexter has been
banished before. National Security Advisor to President Reagan
(WN 6 Dec 85), Poindexter devised a "disinformation" plan to
mislead Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi (WN 3 Oct 86). There's no
indication that Gadhafi was misled, but American newspapers were.
Then, the infamous "Poindexter Memorandum" sought to extend
government control over unclassified private databases (WN 14 Nov
86). A central figure in the Iran-contra scandal, his conviction
for lying to Congress was later set aside on the grounds that
immunized testimony had been used against him. He disappeared
from public view for several years, only to reappear with Bush II
as head of the DARPA office responsible for Total Information
Awareness (WN 20 Dec 02). Yesterday it was announced that
Poindexter is leaving the Pentagon we hope for good.
2. CLIMATE STUDY: EMBRACED BY WHITE HOUSE, BUT TRASHED BY EDITOR.
The widely held view that the 20th Century was the warmest of the
millennium is disputed in a study by two astronomers, Soon and
Baliunas of Harvard-Smithsonian, published in the January issue
of the journal Climate Research. Both authors are associated
with the conservative George C. Marshall Institute, known for its
Star-Wars believers and warming deniers. The Bush administration
took the unusual step of inserting a reference to the Soon-
Baliunas paper in the EPA's recent report on the environment,
replacing a statement that temperatures have risen significantly
in recent decades. The editor-in-chief of Climate Research, Hans
von Storch of the University of Hamburg, believed the review
process of the Soon and Baliunas paper was flawed and wanted to
publish an editorial to that effect; von Storch was prevented
from doing so by the publisher and has resigned in protest.
Meanwhile, other papers strongly dispute the Soon-Baliunas study.
3. SENATE ENERGY BILL: IN ANY INCARNATION, NO CAFE CHANGE. The
Senate this week debated an 800-page bill to set the nation's
energy policy. On Wednesday, an amendment to significantly
increase fuel efficiency in all passenger vehicles, especially
SUVs, was defeated by a 2-1 margin. The same thing happened two
years ago (WN 3 Aug 01). Then, just last night, the Senate
scrapped all the work they'd done and re-approved the version
they wrote last year, when the Democrats were in the majority.
That bill has no fuel efficiency increases, either. The change
also prevented a vote to cap carbon-dioxide emissions.
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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