[Fwd: What's New for Sep 13, 2002]

[Susan L Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

Last Friday's "What's New" takes on quacks & missile defense.  And yes,

it is "on-topic" (mostly).



--Susan



-------- Original Message --------

Subject: What's New for Sep 13, 2002

Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 16:29:42 -0400 (EDT)

From: "What's New" <whatsnew@aps.org>

To: loc@icx.net



WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 13 Sep 02   Washington, DC



1. PERPETUAL MOTION: FAULTY WHEEL BEARING SPOILS DEMONSTRATION. 

Yes, it's another one.  Inventor Carl Tilley rented the Nashville

SuperSpeedway on Saturday to demonstrate his amazing electric

generator.  He took a 1981 DeLorean and replaced the engine with

a conventional electric motor.  The motor is connected to twelve

ordinary 12-volt batteries.  Here's the good part: the motor not

only runs the DeLorean, it also runs a generator that charges the

batteries, so the car just keeps going.  Can it do that?  Well,

not without a good generator.  As Tilley explains, "it utilizes

the generation of static electricity rather than cutting magnetic

fields which has been common practice to date."  Further details

are not available.  Eric Krieg, the relentless foe of perpetual

motion quacks at PHACT, the Philadelphia Association for Critical

Thinking, predicted that the DeLorean would suffer mechanical

failure after 25 miles or so.  Actually, Tilley stopped the

demonstration at 52 miles, explaining that a wheel bearing had

failed.  That happens when you lubricate bearings with snake oil.



2. TERRORISM: ABC SMUGGLES IN A MOCK NUCLEAR WEAPON - SORT OF. 

While the US is spending billions on missile defense, ABC News

shipped a simulated nuclear weapon from Istanbul to New York. 

The mock bomb contained 15 pounds of depleted uranium.  On the

Sept. 11 ABC Good Morning America program, Physicist Tom Cochran

of the Natural Resources Defense Council called it, "A perfect

mock-up. It replicates everything but the capability to explode." 

Well, not quite.  The U-238 in depleted uranium is far less

radioactive than the U-235 in weapons grade uranium, and thus is

much harder to detect.  Depleted uranium wouldn't even make a

good dirty bomb.  Nevertheless, the ABC stunt demonstrates that a

perfect missile defense would only ensure that anyone planning a

nuclear attack would use a simpler delivery system. 



3. RADIATION PROTECTION: PROTECT THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTS FIRST. 

Levi Strauss is introducing a new line of "Dockers" with pockets

that protect your testicles from the radiation produced by a cell

phone in the pocket.  If you carry your cell phone in a shielded

pocket, however, expect a sharp reduction in incoming calls.  For

the latest in protection devices, you have only to look in the

seat pocket on an airliner.  There with the airsickness bag, is a

catalog of really cool stuff marketed by the airline.  The latest

is a line of expensive wrist watches that contain Teslar Chips. 

The ad explains that the Teslar Chip will protect you from

harmful EMF and relieve stress.  Should you have any doubt, there

are Kirlian photographs showing increased energy around a finger,

induced by the Teslar chip.  Glen Rein, PhD. confirmed that the

Teslar Chip increased immune system components 76%. Dr. Scott

Morley, D.Sc.,PhD., MD showed it eliminated ambient EMF from his

patients.  I'm reaching for the airsickness bag now.



THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND and THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY

Opinions are the author's, and are not necessarily shared by the

University or the American Physical Society, but they should be.

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