Friday, 21 May 1999 Washington, DC

1. SPY HYSTERIA: SECRETARY OF ENERGY RICHARDSON SAYS TRUST ME.
In testimony before the House Science Committee yesterday, Secretary Richardson urged members not to "penalize the foreign visitor program, that has not been the problem...Let me manage my department...the culture of lapses has ended." He pleaded with the Committee to give him "a year to see if I perform." By that time, of course, the Clinton Administration will be on its way out anyway. With an election on the way, some members seemed more interested in fixing blame than discussing solutions anyway. "We aren't here to give you leeway for another year," Rep. Rohrabacher (R-CA) told Richardson "we want accountability." The long-awaited release of the Cox report (WN 2 Apr 99) is still awaited. Now they say next week They said that last week.

2. COUNCIL: NATIONAL SECURITY AND THE OPEN CONDUCT OF SCIENCE.
Today, the APS Council approved a statement recognizing the importance of protecting classified information, while cautioning that indiscriminate restrictions on open exchange of ideas will damage science. Foreign visitors and students, it concludes, have made enormous contributions to American science: "Any negative characterization of scientists on the basis of ethnic or national origins is destructive to science and American values."

3. NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE: PHANTOM STAR WARS BILL PASSES.
By an overwhelming vote of 345 to 71, Congress boldly declared that it is the policy of the United States to deploy a defense against ballistic missiles whenever it is "technologically feasible." That could be awhile. The bill appropriates no money, but the cost estimate is up to $75B. The only Republican voting against it was physicist Vern Ehlers, who said he could not vote for something that cost so much with so little chance of working.

4. PATENT OFFICE: FALLOUT FROM FUTURE ENERGY CONFERENCE.
One result of the recent conference on over-unity concepts (WN 30 Apr 99) was that it led to a close look at the Patent and Trademark Office. The conference was hosted by the Integrity Research Institute, whose president, Tom Valone, is a patent examiner. WN has been warning for some time about efforts to infiltrate the Patent Office with examiners sympathetic to fringe science (WN 20 Nov 98). In this week's Science magazine David Voss reports on his investigation of the Patent Office. In addition to patents awarded for various cold-fusion and over-unity devices, the DKL Lifeguard, a dowsing rod with lights and buttons (WN 25 Sep 98), and an electrical switch operated by ESP, have made the cut.



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.