Friday, 4 September 1992 Washington, DC
1. THE NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD COMMISSION ON THE FUTURE OF THE
NSF
(WN 28 Aug 92) will hold public
meetings on Sept 17, Oct 16 and Nov 7. Written public comments
are invited on how NSF can advance the health of academic physics
and do more to link academia and industry. Comments should reach
the Commission by 15 Oct 92. The Executive Secretary of the
Commission is Charles Brownstein, Director, NSF Office of
Planning and Assessment, Room 546, National Science Foundation,
Washington, DC 20550. (202) 357-1201 The 15 member Commission
will be announced Tuesday, September 9.
2. UNITED STATES AGREES TO BUY WEAPONS-GRADE URANIUM FROM
RUSSIA.
The highly-enriched uranium will be blended with either depleted
or natural uranium in the U.S. to produce fuel for power plants.
At least 10 metric tons is to be imported each year for the first
five years, and 30 tons per year thereafter. Even so, it will
take a long time to put a serious dent in the Russian inventory
of bomb-grade uranium, which is estimated to be over 1,000 tons.
Moreover, the agreement does not deal with plutonium, which would
be more expensive to process into fuel, nor does it prevent the
Russians from continuing to make enriched uranium and plutonium.
Burning fissile material in power plants is the safest means of
disposal. There is concern about transporting large amounts of
fissile material around the world, but the risk of diversion if
it were processed into fuel in Russia might be even greater.
3. PHYSICISTS IN THE NEWS!
From MIT to MIU, physicists
are making news. At Maharishi International University, the
chair of the Physics Department, John Hagelin, is running for
President on the Natural Law ticket, and expects to be on the
ballot in 40 states by November. The Harvard trained physicist
wants to create a meditation corps of 7,000 military volunteers;
that is the square root of 1% of the world population--the number
needed to generate super radiance for global scale effects. In
Washington, a press conference featuring nuclear physicist
Stanton Friedman, author of Crash at Corona, revealed newly
unearthed information about the government cover-up of a 1947
crash of a flying saucer in New Mexico. One alien, a humanoid
with suction cups on the ends of its fingers, survived. At MIT,
there was a conference on alien abductions organized by David
Pritchard, an APS Fellow. Although the conference was
confidential, a report should be out by the end of the year.
According to Pritchard, 1% of the population has abduction
experiences--the square of the number needed for super radiance.
The physical evidence is not conclusive, but abductees do exhibit
spots on MRI scans corresponding to the location of brain
implants inserted through their nostrils by the aliens.
4. TAIWAN IS EXPECTED TO BE THE NEXT FOREIGN PARTNER IN THE
SSC.
According to generally reliable sources, Taiwan is
prepared to contribute $40M. Combined with $50M committed by
India, that ups foreign participation to 1% (or is it the square
root of 1%?).
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