Organization: Penn State University
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 18:04:14 EDT
From: <WTU@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: "What's New" Aug-14-1992

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	Subject: What's New for August 14, 1992
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	WHAT'S NEW, Friday, 14 August 1992                 Washington, DC

	1. SDI PROPONENTS IN THE SENATE BLOCK DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL.
	The entire $274B bill was dropped rather than allow a vote to be
	taken on an amendment that would have sliced off a mere $1B.  The
	Sasser/Bumpers amendment would have taken the $1B from the $4.3B
	the Armed Services Committee had recommended for SDI--already a
	big cut from the $5.4B requested by the Administration.  Late on
	Friday, John Warner (R-VA), the ranking minority member of Armed
	Services, confidently introduced a motion to table the amendment;
	it failed 43-49.  Shocked SDI proponents managed to delay a vote
	on the amendment until Monday morning to give them time to twist
	arms.  On Monday they still did not have the votes; but with just
	two days to go before the August break, Malcolm Wallop (R-WY)
	made it clear he would lead a filibuster to block a vote on the
	Sasser amendment.  The Senate went on to other business, but the
	authorization bill contains the Senate's plans for reshaping of
	the military in the post Cold War era.  Although he opposes the
	Sasser amendment, Sam Nunn (D-GA), Chair of Armed Services, will
	submit a cloture petition to force a vote when the Senate comes
	back. He points out that the amendment's supporters would simply
	attach it to the FY 93 defense appropriations bill anyway.

	2. CONGRESS CUTS SCIENCE--BUT STILL FINDS A LITTLE MONEY FOR PORK
	The report language with the House VA/HUD/IA Appropriations Bill
	for FY 93 cuts $75M from the Administration request for the Earth
	Observing System, but earmarks a breathtaking $83M for something
	called the Consortium for International Earth Science Information
	Network in Saginaw, in the district of Bob Traxler (D-MI), chair
	of the VA/HUD/IA Appropriations Subcommittee. Last year, the same
	outfit got $28M.  It is Traxler's parting gift; he is not running
	for reelection.  CIESIN is presumably intended to disseminate the
	sort of information EOS would collect if CIESIN wasn't taking the
	money to build EOS.  Tiny Wheeling Jesuit College usually gets a
	contribution from Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV)--$35M in the last
	two years--but the Senate leadership agreed to go on a low pork
	diet this year.  So this time, it was up to Rep. Mollohan (D-WV),
	in whose district Wheeling lies, to give the 1400 student school
	a couple of million dollars from the House appropriations bill.
	$13.5M was cut from SETI; $8M of that went to something called
	the Delta College Learning Center.  We can expect some additions
	to the list when the House/Senate Conference completes its work.

	3. THE "NUCLEON CLUSTER MODEL" EXPLAINS COLD FUSION REACTIONS!
	You probably thought cold fusion already had been explained by
	"hydrons," a sort of pre-shrunk hydrogen atom (WN 26 Apr 91).
	This week, however, Clustron Sciences Corporation in Vienna, VA,
	revealed an amazing discovery: it is the "concealed antimatter
	component of the proton" that produces the heat. The link between
	hydron theory and the nucleon cluster model is Eugene Mallove, a
	former science writer at MIT, who is Vice-president for Research
	of Clustron Sciences.  A year ago, Mallove was peddling hydrons.

	Robert L. Park  (202) 662-8700      The American Physical Society

Newsgroups: sci.physics