Friday, 18 May 2001

1. CANADA WILL BACK MISSILE SHIELD - FOR A PIECE OF THE ACTION.
According to the National Post, a senior member of Canada's defense policy team explained that opposing the shield would cost Canada jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of high-technology contracts. "We will try to safeguard the 1972 ABM Treaty," he said, "but, in the end, Canada will support the United States." Thus are partners openly purchased on the international market. It's not like this is something new. Bud McFarlane, National Security Advisor under President Reagan, boastfully recalls how he purchased Prime Minister Thatcher's support for SDI in 1984. In the privacy of Camp David, Thatcher had explained why SDI was such a lousy idea. Afterwards, the President asked McFarlane to go to London and try to persuade Mrs. Thatcher to adopt a more subdued position. McFarlane merely remarked to the Prime Minister that "the President believes that up to $300 million ought be subcontracted to British firms." She began to realize that SDI might have merit after all.

2. HARVARD BACKS HOLISTIC MEDICINE - FOR A PIECE OF THE ACTION.
Acknowledging that patients are experimenting increasingly with alternative treatments, the Harvard Medical School is creating an institute for nontraditional medicine. According to a recent Harvard study, Americans last year made an estimated 600 million office visits to practitioners of so-called "integrative" medicine, which combines mainstream and alternative treatments. More significantly, they dropped $30 billion on the treatments they received. Hmmm. Perhaps Harvard should also establish an institute for the study of astrology.

3. NASA SURVIVORS: NO RUSH TO FILL THE ADMINISTRATOR'S SLOT.
You might think the President's Science Advisor would have some input into the choice of a replacement for Dan Goldin as Administrator of NASA - except the President has no Science Advisor. The hot rumor inside NASA is that former Space Command General Tom Moorman will get the NASA job. But why not Denis Tito, the only recent space figure who is recognized by the public?

4. ENERGY: PRESIDENT BUSH'S "BOLD" PLAN.
Many physicists will applaud the inclusion of nuclear power in a plan that emphasizes production, but they will recall that funding for development of a new generation of fission reactors, including inherently safe reactors, was almost eliminated years ago. Just-in-time delivery of new nuclear plants based on new technologies just can't happen. Added R&D funding for renewables, slashed in the Bush budget, is tied to ANWR and off-shore-drilling royalties. But efficiency and conservation are not quite forgotten: a tax credit is proposed for the purchase of hybrid gas/electric automobiles.



Bob Park can be reached via email at whatsnew@bobpark.org
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the University, but they should be.