Friday, June 24, 2005
NOTICE: WN COMES OF AGE; IT WAS BORN 21 YEARS AGO, 29 JUN 84.
The 1 Jul 05 issue will be a little different, but you might not
even notice: The University of Maryland Department of Physics will
now assume responsibility for sending it out. The Department of
Physics has always been supportive of WN, even making it part of
Bob Park's teaching assignment. WN will maintain its eclectic
mixture of news and opinion, and will continue to be assembled by
the same What's New team in the Washington Office of the APS. The
APS Home Page, of course, will still have a link to What's New.
You may recall that WN reported a month ago that the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine, the oldest medical school in the
nation, had formed a partnership with the Tai Sophia Institute to
offer a master's degree in Complementary and Alternative Medicine
(WN 13 May 05). Friends of Penn Med are
relieved to learn that it has quietly severed ties to Tai Sophia.
With the Supreme Court about to announce a decision on displaying
the ten commandments, Christian groups launch a get-out-the-prayer
campaign. It will be hailed as a test of the power of prayer if
they win. Monday, on the floor of the House, Rep. John Hostettler
(R-IN) accused Democrats of being anti-Christian during a debate
over what Democrats described as "coercive and abusive religious
proselytizing" by evangelical Christians at the Air Force Academy.
That violated House collegiality rules, halting business for an
hour until Hostettler withdrew the remarks. On Wednesday, an Air
Force panel investigating the religious climate at the Academy
found that faculty members had indeed used their positions to
promote their Christian beliefs, but "they had the best
intentions," according to Lt. Gen. Brady who led the panel.
The front lines have shifted to Dover, PA where a federal judge
will consider a lawsuit charging the School Board with violating
the separation of church and state by requiring that children hear
about Intelligent Design in science class. However, the Discovery
Institute is still getting mileage out of the refusal of scientists
to engage in a rigged debate in Kansas. This time it's Dr. John
West, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, who seems to be
in charge of explaining that ID is science. West teaches Political
Science at Seattle Pacific University, where "we ground everything
we do on the gospel of Jesus Christ." So much for science.
Copper bracelets 30 years ago. Magnets 10years ago. Now it's the
titanium necklace, which regulates your body's electric currents.
His integrated circuit wrote the future more finely than anyone
ever dared imagine. The smallest became the most powerful.
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