[EAS]What's New for May 17, 2002

[pjk]

Mail*Link¨ SMTP               What's New for May 17, 2002

Dear Colleagues -

Time again to remind you of the weekly "What's New" from Bob Park,
Prof. of Physics at the Univ. of Maryland. Consider a subscription.
It's invariably provocative and informative.

   --PJK

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Date: 5/17/02 3:57 PM
From: What's New
WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 17 May 02   Washington, DC

1. SECRECY: SWIFT ACTION TAKEN TO DEAL WITH MISSILE FAILURES.  On
Tuesday, Defense Daily revealed that a Lockheed-Martin Patriot
Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile did not destroy its target
as the Missile Defense Agency had stated.  A second PAC-3 failed
to launch.  The Pentagon lost no time in taking firm corrective
action: on Wednesday, Defense Daily reported that in the future
all specifics of the targets and countermeasures used in tests
will be classified.  Officials denied that the secrecy order was
intended to prevent any independent review of the missile-test
program.  And I'm an alien from the planet Mongo.

2. ARMS REDUCTION: THREE-PAGE TREATY CUTS ARSENALS BY TWO-THIRDS. 
This is far more practical than destroying nuclear missiles with
interceptors.  It's also much more than a hand-shake.  The cuts
are similar to those in Start III, negotiated by Clinton at the
1997 Helsinki summit, which the Senate declined to ratify.  One
difference is that this treaty will be signed by a Republican
President.  This treaty is also full of loopholes insisted on by
the U.S.  Over strong Russian objections, the count doesn't
include warheads that are not "operationally deployed."  Nor is
there a timetable for the destruction of weapons, as long as it's
done within the 10-year life of the treaty.  

3. NUCLEAR POSTURE REVIEW: SENATE HEARING TAKES UP THE DEBATE. 
The Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs convened on Thursday to
consider implications of The Nuclear Posture Review, a  Pentagon
report leaked to the media (WN 15 Mar 02).  With no imminent
threat from the former Soviet Union, the report calls for a new
class of smaller nuclear weapons more suited to our post 9/11
conflicts, including earth-penetrating nukes.  Development would
violate the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the test moratorium, and
common sense.  Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg explained why
earth-penetrating nukes would not work against deeply-buried
targets, and could end up "killing our own troops and the local
population."  Developing new weapons sends the wrong message. 

4. "LIFTERS": ALIEN TECHNOLOGISTS SEEK MEDIA EXPOSURE.  WN got a
call this week from a network television reporter asking about
"lifter" technology.  Since NASA's Podkletnov gravity shield
flopped (WN 12 Oct 01), the only anti-gravity claim around is the
"lifter."  Developers refused to deny rumors that the idea came
from wreckage taken from the Roswell UFO crash.  Could this be? 
According to the official Air Force report, the wreckage
consisted of balsa wood sticks, metal foil, plastic tape and
neoprene.  So we went to web site of American Antigravity, which
lists materials needed to construct a lifter.  Same stuff!

(Christy Fernandez contributed to this week's What's New.)

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND and THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY
Opinions are the authors, and are not necessarily shared by the
University or the American Physical Society, but they should be.