Friday, March 27, 2009
An editorial in today's Lancet points out that, "When any influential
person, be it a religious or political figure, makes a statement that could
devastate the health of millions of people they should retract it," It was,
of course, a reference to the Pope's claim, made during his trip to Africa,
that condoms may exacerbate the spread of AIDS. It was an egregious
example of what Paul Tillich labeled "sacred dishonesty," in which the
facts are revised to support a supposedly worthy conclusion. In fact, this
was "sacred-dishonesty squared" the Pope's real concern was not the spread
of ATDS, but the spread off birth control. As terrible as AIDS is, the
population explosion in Africa causes far more suffering, and it will only
grow worse. The Pope preaches abstinence to prevent the spread of AIDS.
But our sex drive was shaped by Darwinian evolution to ensure procreation.
It works extraordinarily well, and manifests itself even within the
Church. Against it, the gods themselves contend in vain.
Before the new FDA Commissioner, Margaret Hamburg, had a chance to change
the 18-or-older policy on over-the-counter access to the rnorning-after
contraceptive, a federal judge in NY laid out the overwhelming evidence
that the policy dictated by FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, a Bush
family friend, was not based on science. Time is of the essence in taking
Plan B, and the last thing we need is young women becoming mothers at an
age when they should be getting an education and exploring their
potential. We should also recognize the contribution of former Assistant
FDA Commissioner Susan Wood who resigned to call attention to the case
www.umd.edu/WN05/wn090205.html .
It was exactly 8 years ago that Sen. Jesse Helms gloated that he had driven
a stake through the heart of the world's most important treaty. Can it be
revived? During his campaign president Obama promised to deal with the
thousands of nuclear weapons that could be used in a war nobody wants. What
do you do with all that bomb-grade material? Use it to generate clean
electrical power by blending it with the tons of depleted U-238 still
stored. Enriched with Pu-239 it can supply the world with clean electrical
power. It's nothing new; by the end of their lifetime, or most of the
energy from the fuel rods in a conventional nuclear power plant is coming
from the fission of plutonium.
Monday was the 20th anniversary of the infamous press conference called by
the University of Utah in Salt Lake City to announce the discovery of Cold
Fusion. The sun warmed the Earth that day as it had for 5 billion years,
by the high temperature fusion of hydrogen nuclei. Incredibly, the American
chemical Society was meeting in Salt Lake City this week and there were
many papers on cold fusion, or as their authors prefer LENR (low-energy
nuclear reactions). These people, at least some of them, look in ever
greater detail where others have not bothered to look. They say they find
great mysteries, and perhaps they do. Is it important? I doubt it. But I
think it's science.
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