From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Fri Sep 09 2005 - 20:50:40 UTC
>From: "What's New" <whatsnew_at_BOBPARK.ORG>
>Reply-To: whatsnew_at_BOBPARK.ORG
>To: BOBPARKS-WHATSNEW_at_LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
>Subject: [BOBPARKS-WHATSNEW] What's New Friday September 9, 2005
>Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2005 16:15:01 -0400
>
>WHAT'S NEW Robert L. Park Friday, 9 Sep 05 Washington, DC
>
>1. KATRINA: THE COST OF THE HURRICANE RECOVERY KEEPS GROWING.
>The New York Times today estimated the recovery costs at more
>than $100B. So far, Congress has approved $51.8B in spending.
>Meanwhile, there have been huge tax cuts for some of us. So the
>focus of today's What's New is on unanticipated expenditures.
>
>2. ZERO-POINT ENERGY: KATRINA REVIVES A STRUGGLING INDUSTRY.
>Even as gas approaches the price of bottled water, Katrina has
>cut oil production in the Gulf and shut down key ports. Drilling
>in the ANWAR faces a key vote, and the President has ordered oil
>released from the strategic reserve. So where is the free-energy
>industry? Right on schedule. The San Francisco Chronicle had a
>rather skeptical article in the business section this week about
>a "clean, inexhaustible energy source." However, we don't do
>perpetual-motion in the 21st Century. Nowadays we tap zero-point
>energy http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN02/wn080202.html, and
>Magnetic Power Inc says it's "on the verge" of it. "We are still
>having trouble making it repeatable," the CEO said. "All we know
>is that we're seeing more energy output than input, what else
>could it be?" Is this sounding vaguely familiar? The Air Force
>sank $600,000 in the company. Last year, the AF was investing in
>teleportation http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN04/wn102904.html.
>Any time now we can expect to hear new claims for cold fusion.
>
>3. HYDROGEN ECONOMY: "NEW CATALYST PRODUCES HYDROGEN FROM WATER."
>Well, not exactly. The prospect of a hydrogen economy hinges on
>the ability to produce hydrogen economically. Thirty years ago,
>an inventor named Sam Leach claimed to have invented a car that
>ran on water. He said it used a secret catalyst to dissociate
>water. That would be thermodynamically impossible. But a brief
>report in Scientific American last week implied a new rhenium
>catalyst might dissociate water. It was based on an article in
>the Journal of the American Chemical Society, but the title of
>the story in SA was misleading. The hydrogen was from catalytic
>oxidation of organosilanes. Cars still won't run on water.
>
>4. MISSILE DEFENSE: WE DON'T SEEM TO HEAR MUCH ABOUT IT LATELY.
>Maybe it's no longer needed; after all, the election is over. A
>report from the General Accounting Office this week doesn't ask
>whether it works. It didn't the last we heard 8 months ago,
>http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN05/wn021805.html. GAO concludes
>that funds are needed to sustain the system to 2011. Why sustain
>it? In 1979, in Grand Forks, ND, a worthless missile defense
>system was turned off 24 hours after it was declared completed.
>
>5. MARS: TESTING A FISSION-POWERED ROCKET ENGINE TO SEND HUMANS.
>The problem is finding a place to test it here on Earth. In the
>first test of a nuclear rocket engine in 1965, the exhaust was
>just aimed skyward. NASA will not be allowed to vent to the
>atmosphere this time. Design and operation of a Ground Test
>Facility capable of removing fission products from the exhaust is
>a major engineering project. Why is it we're going to Mars?
>
>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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