Friday, December 22, 2006

1. IMMACULATE CONCEPTION: NATURE FINDS A WAY TO GET THE JOB DONE.

In the quaint euphemism of the Authorized Version of the Bible, no male had "known" Flora, a female Komodo dragon, before she laid her clutch of 8 eggs at the Chester Zoo in England. The genetics of self-fertilization in lizards dictates that the hatchlings will all be male. Claims of human parthenogenesis are frequently advanced at this time of year, but confirmation has been lacking. By some weird coincidence the eggs are expected to hatch about Christmas.

2. EVOLUTION OF COBB COUNTY: WARNING STICKERS ARE GONE FOR GOOD.

Five years ago the school board in Cobb County, GA put stickers on science textbooks warning that "evolution is just a theory," (WN 27 Jun 02) . The legal battle opposing the stickers was led by Americans United for Separation Church and State, with the help of the same team that defeated the Philistines last year in Dover, PA. In a consent decree signed on Tuesday, the School Board agreed never to use a similar sticker or undermine the teaching of evolution in science class. In a separate agreement the School District agreed to pay a substantial portion of the plaintiff's legal fees. That more than anything else will discourage similar actions elsewhere.

3. LEAKS: GOVERNMENT BACKS DOWN FROM MISUSE OF SUBPOENA POWER.

Last week WN commented on the government's curious use of a grand jury subpoena to force the ACLU to turn over a classified document. The subpoena has since been withdrawn and the totally innocuous document declassified. What's not a secret is that the overwhelming use of classification is to hide mistakes. Secrets are as incompatible with democracy as they are with science.

4. ANTHRAX VACCINE: GOVERNMENT CANCELS ITS CONTRACT WITH VACGEN.

WN wagered last week that the government would bail VacGen out of its $877M contract to supply 75 million doses of a modern anthrax vaccine. Instead, they terminated it. The FDA put clinical trials on hold over concerns about the vaccine's stability. This was largest component of the Bush Administration's $5.6B Project BioShield to build a stockpile of modern vaccines and drugs to counter a terrorist attack, which is now in a shambles.

5. FLOODS: AUTOMATIC DECLASSIFICATION OF 25 YEAR-OLD SECRETS.

Midnight on Dec. 31 hundreds of millions of documents will be automatically declassified under a law President Clinton signed. The Everest of classified documents grew faster under Bush who set out to reclassify everything that had been declassified. Some are surprised that Bush didn't use his national security powers to block the law. No need. Mt. Classified has become unscalable. It passed the critical point beyond which there is no mathematical possibility of extracting information.

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.