WHAT'S NEW Friday, July 09, 2004

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: What's New <whatsnew () bobpark org>
Date: July 9, 2004 4:11:48 PM EDT
To: farber () central cis upenn edu
Subject: WHAT'S NEW Friday, July 09, 2004
Reply-To: whatsnew () bobpark org

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 9 Jul 04   Washington, DC

Paul Gresser contributed to this week's issue of What's New.

1. MISSILE DEFENSE: AUSTRALIA DECIDES STAR WARS II IS GOOD ONYA.
Australia, for whatever reason, wants in on the Star Wars missile
shield.  WN interviewed Poco Curante, a famed ICBM Hunter, who
has been picked to head the Australian program.  "Crikey!  I wish
you knockers would just give it a burl!  Look at this ICBM; isn't
she byoooootiful?!" he exclaimed, gesticulating wildly.  "Picture
some drongo in North Korea decides to lob a nuke dingo our way.
No worries!   All we have to do is deploy the kill vehicle and
that'll give it the flick, and Bob's your uncle."  Informed that
the missile defense is as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike,
Poco fumed.  "Won't you stickybeaks shove off?  It's London to a
brick that it'll work!  It's fair dinkum.  She'll be right.
She's a bonzer system.  That Bush bloke told us so."

2. JUNK SCIENCE: DID JOHN EDWARDS USE IT TO AMASS HIS FORTUNE?
For twenty years John Edwards worked as a highly successful trial
lawyer representing those he refers to as "regular people" in
personal injury cases.  A WorldNetDaily article this week says he
"financed his political career by winning legal cases based on
junk science," cerebral palsy cases in particular.  Increasingly,
medical science is exonerating doctors in cerebral palsy.  The
question is: what did Edwards know and when did he know it?  Two
studies in 2003, according to WorldNetDaily, undermined Edwards
premise.  But by then he had been in the Senate for four years.

3. POLITICAL SCIENCE: UCS PROTESTS AN ADMINISTRATION LITMUS TEST
The Union of Concerned Scientists persists in accusing the Bush
administration of manipulating science to further its political
agenda (WN 20 Feb 04).  In a press release yesterday, they
contend that nominees to scientific advisory panels have been
questioned about whether they voted for Bush.  John Marburger,
the president's science advisor, brands the UCS accusations
"wrong and misleading".  Among the "notable achievements" of the
Bush Administration, Marburger includes the hydrogen fuel
technology initiative, and "a new vision for space exploration to
the Moon and Mars."  Sure, and the most "notable achievement" of
What's New is a new vision of winning a Pulitzer Prize.

4. ETHICS: NIH SCIENTISTS CUT BIG OUTSIDE DEALS WITHOUT APPROVAL.
How does an agency deal with a doubling of its budget in only
five years?  It's not easy.  At NIH they did it by looking the
other way.  Researchers recruited from private companies
maintained lucrative collaborations with pharmaceutical and
biotechnology companies, without seeking agency approval as
required by federal rules.  An investigation by the House of
Representatives is expanding into 15 other agencies.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.
Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
University of Maryland, but they should be.
---
Archives of What's New can be found at http://www.aps.org/WN
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