Friday, 30 August 1991 Washington, DC
1. URI GELLER'S PSYCHIC POWER IS UNABLE TO BEND JAMES
RANDI,
so the psychokinetic spoon bender has employed the
quirky American judicial system to try to silence the great
debunker. Geller is suing Randi for $15 million, claiming
defamation. Truth may be a good defense against libel, but the
"American rule" is that each side of a lawsuit must bear its own
costs, no matter who wins. Even a successful defense is often
costly and the mere threat of a lawsuit can stifle scientific
opinion. Last year, Pons and Fleischmann sought to intimidate
cold fusion critics into withholding contrary evidence by
threatening legal action (WN 25
May 90). In the case of helium assays of their used
cathodes, they apparently succeeded. Randi says he spent $150
thousand defeating two earlier Geller suits, and now he is broke.
The Skeptics Legal Fund has been established to defend Randi.
2. VICE PRESIDENT QUAYLE RECOMMENDS REPLACING THE "AMERICAN
RULE"
with the "English rule." Under the "English rule," the
loser in a lawsuit pays the costs of both sides, which curbs the
use of lawsuits by quacks to silence their critics. The
recommendation really came from the Presidents Council on
Competitiveness; it was used by the Vice President in a
controversial speech before the American Bar Association.
Another recommendation calls for reforming the rules regarding
expert witnesses to require that their testimony to be based on
"widely accepted theories."
3. A "WIDELY ACCEPTED THEORY" ON SELLING THE SPACE
PROGRAM
to the American people has been called into
question. A University of Southern California study examined the
reactions of people to TV spots showing spinoffs of the space
program. People were annoyed when invited to be grateful for
scratchproof glasses. "Instead of the mundane," a researcher
said, "people hunger to learn that the space venture has wrought
sweeping accomplishments. They beg to hear about great
discoveries and triumphs over exotic problems."
4. TROUBLE BREWS OVER THE TRANSFER OF FUNDS TO CIVILIAN
PROJECTS.
To prevent any "peace dividend" from being
squandered on domestic programs, the White House insisted that
last fall's budget agree-ment erect a wall between defense and
non-defense spending. OMB director Richard Darman, the official
scorekeeper, took a hard line, even requiring an across-the-board
sequestration earlier this year over an $8M earmark in the
defense spending bill for Loyola College in Baltimore. A Jesuit
college, he argued, is not a defense facility (or a space
station!). Now he is threatening to do the same thing to a
measure that would use $100M in defense funds to support
development of HDTV. Although military systems depend heavily on
video displays, DOD support of HDTV is a symbol to the White
House of a dreaded "technology policy." Democrats are
complaining that Darman is selectively enforcing the budget
agreement to favor administration policy; they point to the $500M
transfer he winked at in the space station deal (WN 16 Aug 91).
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