Friday, 27 October 2000
1. BLACKOUT: WHERE DO IDEAS LIKE THESE COME FROM?
Unlike
most schemes for free energy, the hydrino process of Randy
Mills is not without ample theory
(WN 8 Jan 99).
Mills has written a 1000 page tome, entitled,"The Grand Unified
Theory of Classical Quantum Mechanics," that takes the
reader all the way from hydrinos to antigravity
(WN 9 May 97).
Fortunately, Aaron Barth (not to be confused with
Erik Baard, the Randy Mills' apologist), has taken upon
himself to look through it, checking for accuracy. Barth
is a post doctoral researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian
Institute, and holds a PhD in Astronomy, 1998, from UC,
Berkeley. What he found initially were mathematical
blunders and unjustified assumptions. To his surprise,
however, portions of the book seemed well organized.
These, it now turns out, were lifted verbatim from various
texts. This has been the object of a great deal of
discussion from Mills' Hydrino Study Group. Mills seems
not to understand what the fuss is all about.
2. SCIENCE EDUCATION: SOME LAWS ARE TOO IMPORTANT TO PASS?
How do you save an important bill from a Supreme Court
challenge? House Democrats came up with a novel answer this
week. Citing fears of constitutional problems with
physicist Vern Ehlers'(R-MI) National Science Education
Act, Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) implored ".we know the
urgency of the provisions of this bill. But we do not want
to risk the outcome.". Solution? Thirty of the bill's
Democrat co-sponsors led the charge to defeat it. WN
suggests that bills like Ehlers, which promote training in
analytical skills, seem urgently needed.
3. POLYGRAPHS: SOME LAWS SHOULDN'T BE PASSED.
Congress
snuck in a provision to the defense authorization bill
requiring polygraphs for 5,000 additional Energy Department
employees. Including the provision from last year's bill
(WN 10 Sep 99),
the total is now 20,000. Hmmm. Now how many
polygraph tests did Aldrich Ames pass?
4. "...IF A TREE DON'T FALL ON ME, I'LL LIVE 'TIL I DIE."
Many readers have asked for a full account of the accident
on Sep 3. I'm not a first hand witness, but here is what I
pieced together from others: I set out on my usual Sunday
jog along the only trout stream inside the Beltway. My son
would always run with me, but this day, fortunately, I was
alone. About two miles into the run, a huge dead oak
decided to fall on me. I underwent eleven hours of surgery
that night as they pieced me together. I returned to
surgery several times over the next few days to prevent the
spread of infection. The right leg is now recovering
rapidly and should be back in shape in six months. The
right arm may take longer. Meanwhile, I'm back at home and
I'm able to do some work, but I won't be at top speed for a
while. Fortunately, my staff is smarter than I am, so you
should hardly notice.
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