Friday, 24 September 1999 Washington, DC
1. CTBT: SENATE DEMOCRATS ABANDON THE BIG PUSH.
Just two weeks ago, Byron Dorgan (D-ND) was threatening to chain himself to the
tracks to block other Senate business unless the test ban was put on the agenda
(WN 10 Sep 99).
But a week ago, Jesse Helms (R-NC)
hinted he would be willing to have a quick vote
(WN 17 Sep 99).
Did that mean Helms had the votes to kill it? Democrats weren't
taking any chances. On Wednesday, Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-
SD) acknowledged that the big push in the Senate is over for now.
"It isn't that we've forgotten about the test ban," Daschle told
reporters, "it's just that we feel strongly about the importance
of getting appropriations bills done on time as well." But it's
not over for everyone. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright,
slammed treaty opponents: "They have failed to explain how our
security can be damaged by asking others to end testing, as we
have already done, and accept intrusive monitoring as well."
2. IN WRECK: APPROPRIATIONS BILLS AREN'T GETTING DONE EITHER.
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved an FY 2K funding
bill that would provide everything the President requested for
NSF and NASA. That's very good news of course, even though a
substantial share of NASA's money is earmarked for dubious
projects in the home states of appropriators
(WN 27 Aug 99),
but
that's not the end of the story. The bill must survive attempts
to amend it on the Senate floor and then be reconciled with the
House version. There's the rub. House and Senate totals for the
bill differ widely, presenting conferees with an impossible task
at time when relations between the chambers are fractious.
3. PERPETUUM MOBILE: BETTING AGAINST THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS.
Most free energy scams invoke outlandish new physics: cold
fusion, hydrinos, zero-point energy, gravity shields, antimatter.
But there are also throwbacks to the 19th Century that directly
challenge the laws of thermodynamics. Physics Today carried a
full-page ad for Entropy Systems, Inc. describing a heat engine
that runs off ambient heat. It's hardly a new idea. Two years
ago Better World Technologies was touting the "Fisher engine"
that violated the Second Law
(WN 18 Jul 97).
But it wasn't new
then either--it was the "zero motor," invented by John Gamgee in
1880. It didn't work then either, but Gamgee sold it to the U.S.
Navy anyway. Better World Technologies quietly dropped the Fisher
Engine, but if they couldn't get around the Second Law, how about
the First? In a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal last
Friday, BWT announced 45 FREE meetings across the country to
demonstrate free energy using "Counter Rotation" technology.
4. POLITICS: SENSENBRENNER IS HONORED AS "CHAMPION OF SCIENCE."
The award was made by the Science Coalition. Mr. Sensenbrenner
sought to block construction of the spallation neutron source
(WN 2 Apr 99)
and opposed the science doubling bill
(WN 5 Mar 99).
|
