Space & Astronomy/Space and Astronomy (October 1993).iso/pc/text/spacedig/v09_3/v9_324.txt

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Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #324

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 9 : Issue 324

Today's Topics:
           Discovery - UFO Close Encounter?
     Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?
     Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?
     Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?
     Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?
     Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?
            space shuttle landing
             Re: Room Temperature Fusion
             Re: Room Temperature Fusion
            Moon Myths (was re:Astrology)
        Re: Success with cold fusion reported
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 27 Mar 89 20:23:37 GMT
From: oliveb!amdahl!drivax![e-mail]  (MacLeod)
Subject: Discovery - UFO Close Encounter?

(This posting was downloaded from Paranet Alpha)

#: 173737 S10/Paranormal Issues
    19-Mar-89  21:29:00
Sb: DISCOVERY/UFO?
Fm: Bert 71450,3504
To: ALL

I just received a rather remarkable phone call from Bob Oechsler, MUFON
investigator from Annapolis, MD, who also has his own nationally broadcast UFO
radio talk show.  Bob asked me to upload the following information.

On Tuesday March 14, 1989 at 6:42 am the following message was received by a
UFO investigator in Baltimore through WA3NAN (Goddard) amateur radio
transission from the orbiter Discovery.  "Houston, this is Discovery.  We
still have the alien space craft, uhh, under observance."  The transmission
was picked up on a Radio Shack scanner tuned to 147.45 mhz.

According to Bob, he and his colleagues have found that the transmission
matches up with NASA tapes except that there is a "blank space" in the tape
where the above transmission occurred.  (Possibly bleached out?) They are
currently doing voice print analyis in an effort to match the specific voice
with one of the astronauts.  They will compare to voices of all of the
astronauts recorded during the Today Show interview.  They should know "for
sure"  in about a week.

Bob would very much appreciate it if anyone who may be able to corroborate
this transmission would call him at 301-798-1503.   About 15 minutes prior to
the transmission there was a broadcast about "a fire on board".  There is
speculation that this may have been a code to switch frequencies or to stop
feed to the public domain.  He would this also like to hear if anyone can
corroborate anything about a "fire."

------------------------------

Date: 28 Mar 89 19:59:45 GMT
From: steinmetz!sunspot![e-mail]  (Emmett Black)
Subject: Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?

A colleague here at GE Research met the news with the typical
"pooh-pooh; April fool" reaction -- until he found out who
the two scientists involved were....
He said he has known those guys for 25 years; and they are "rock solid."

I'm inclined to believe them, too.

What REALLY upset me was that the local TV station covered it
VERY briefly on Friday;  in their "Your Money" segment!
They moaned and groaned and complained that this might "put
thousands of people out of work;" they were more concerned with
maintaining the "status quo" than about freezing in the dark.
---- techno-illiterates!     I guess I'll switch to PBS.

--Emmett
    J.E.Black; GE Research/K1-3C26; Schenectady, NY 12345
    [e-mail];   ...!uunet!steinmetz!crd!blackje


--Emmett
    [e-mail]
    ...uunet!steinmetz!crd!blackje

    GE Research; K1-3C26
    Schenectady, NY 12345

------------------------------

Date: 28 Mar 89 17:35:57 GMT
From: mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo![e-mail]  (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Prem Sobel) writes:
>Unless I have slipped a decimal point. It is under 1.6*10^9 miles round
>trip to/from the asetroid belt...
>which if one went at 1g until half way then at 1g to slow down would take:
>    t=sqrt(5280*10^8) ~= 73*10^4 sec ~=200 hours ~= 9 days

Accelerating at 1G (9.81 m/s/s, the Imperial units are useless garbage
when it comes to calculations like this) for 200 hours is a total
delta-V of about 7e6 m/s (7000 kps).  If we assume a mass ratio of 10,
which means the ship is mostly fuel but still manageable for a single
stage, exhaust velocity is 7e6/ln(10), about 3000 kps.  Assuming a
100-ton (metric) ship (fully fueled), we "burn" 0.125 kg/s.  (We will
ignore the change in thrust needed to maintain a constant 1G, and
assume constant thrust for the moment.)  Accelerating that mass flow
to 3000 kps requires 0.5*0.125*(3e6*3e6) == 560e9 watts of power,
assuming no losses.  Building a half-terawatt power plant that weighs
only a few tons is going to be, um, a challenge.  I don't think we're
going to see 1G missions to the asteroids right away.
--
Welcome to Mars!  Your         |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
passport and visa, comrade?    | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 27 Mar 89 20:11:18 GMT
From: mailrus!wasatch!uplherc!wicat![e-mail]  (Keith McQueen)
Subject: Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?

Just a thought...

What are the implications of this for terrorist activities?
Will this make cheap available nuclear weapons possible?


Shudder!  I hope not!


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
| Keith McQueen, N7HMF            Organization: Wicat Systems, Inc.   |
| 1116 Graff Circle               Work [phone]x422              |
| Orem, Utah 84058                Packet:    N7HMF @ NV7V             |
| Home [phone]              Voice: 147.340 MHz or 449.675 MHz   |
|     =====>  My opinions are all mine...  <=====                     |
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

------------------------------

Date: 28 Mar 89 15:28:19 GMT
From: steinmetz![e-mail]  (Wm. E. Davidsen Jr)
Subject: Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mike Van Pelt) writes:

| We *really* need access to the asteriods, which have plenty of platinum-
| group metals.

  I'm not disagreeing, but what's the source of that info. Some
meteoriods have been found to contain pgroup metals in iron-nickel
mixes, but has someone done a reasonable analysis somehow of what's in
the belt?
================================================================
New mailing address: [e-mail]

We are no longer ge-crd.arpa and mail will stop working to that address
in the *very* near future.

Note: flames and hate mail may still use the old address ;-{
================================================================
We now return you to our regularly scheduled signature...

--
    bill davidsen        ([e-mail])
  {uunet | philabs}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me

------------------------------

Date: 28 Mar 89 20:25:08 GMT
From: vsi1!v7fs1![e-mail]  (Mike Van Pelt)
Subject: Re: Room Temperature fusion - possible indications?

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (bill davidsen) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mike Van Pelt) writes:
>| We *really* need access to the asteriods, which have plenty of platinum-
>| group metals.
>
>  I'm not disagreeing, but what's the source of that info. Some
>meteoriods have been found to contain pgroup metals in iron-nickel
>mixes, but has someone done a reasonable analysis somehow of what's in
>the belt?

Well, we haven't actually gone out there and assayed any asteroids,
of course, but the nickel-iron meteorites found on Earth have all
contained a significant percentage of Pt-group.  The Sudbury deposit
in Canada is the remains of an ancient asteroid strike, and it supplies
Pt/Pd/Ir and such as a byproduct.  And the iridium in the K-T boundary
layer is considered pretty convincing evidence for the Alvarez
theory that a major asteriod strike is responsible for the massive
wave of extinctions at the end of the Cretaceous.

So platinum group metals being available from asteroids seems a pretty
good bet.  If we can get out there.  And especially, if we can find any
that don't have Soviet claims already staked, which may be a considerable
problem by the time Our Congress finally gets off their backsides.
--
"Ain't nothin' in the middle                  Mike Van Pelt
o' the road, 'cept a yellow                   Video 7
line and dead 'possums."                      ...ames!vsi1!v7fs1!mvp

------------------------------

Date: 28 Mar 89 19:42:49 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!wasatch![e-mail]  (Timothy K Reynolds)
Subject: space shuttle landing

When the space shuttle Atlantis lands at Edwards AFB, I would reeeeealy
like to be there. I have read letters on the news-group telling me what
to take along, but what do I have to get to watch. Do I have to get some
kind of a pass to get on base? Please tell me what the deal is! And
while I am asking who would I have to beg to get real close, if you know
what I mean. Please help, I know that you guys out pthere must know
someone. I am just a student who life dream is to watch the shuttle land
from the front row.

                     Thank You,
                     Patrick R. Jones

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 28 Mar 89 11:16:05 PST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Room Temperature Fusion
X-St-Vmsmail-To: JPLLSI::"[e-mail]"

    I just heard an interview with Stanley Pons on 'The Osgood File',
Charles Osgood, The CBS Radio Network.  He says two eminent physicists
looked at his work and said everything looked cool.  He also said skeptics
and beleivers alike should wait till May when the paper is published, and
that he thought full scale applications ought to be delayed 20 years, so
sufficient environmental impact studies could be made.

----
"Pave Paradise,                |         Dale M. Greer
     put up a parking lot."        |   Center for Space Sciences
        -- Joni Mitchell    | University of Texas at Dallas
                    | UTSPAN::UTADNX::UTD750::GREER

The opinions are my own, and may or may not reflect those of my employer.

------------------------------

Date: 29 Mar 89 03:12:30 GMT
From: m2c!wpi![e-mail]  (George Regnery)
Subject: Re: Room Temperature Fusion

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] writes:
>
>     I just heard an interview with Stanley Pons on 'The Osgood File',
> Charles Osgood, The CBS Radio Network.  He says two eminent physicists
> looked at his work and said everything looked cool.  He also said skeptics
                                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^

  Did he say everything looked cool?  (As in room temperature?) ;)

George M. Regnery        ! Worcester     ! Albedo 0.39    ! Going on means
[e-mail]  OR  ! Polytechnic   !  --Vangelis    ! going far. Going
[e-mail]       ! Institute     ! (a good album) ! far means returning.
CompuServe: 73300,3655   ! (Worc, Mass.) ! *PREFER BITNET*!     --Tao Te Ching

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 28 Mar 89 09:20:32 PST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Moon Myths (was re:Astrology)
X-St-Vmsmail-To: UTADNX::UTSPAN::JPLLSI::"[e-mail]"

In an earlier issue John Roberts asks the right question:
>>I mean, maybe the moon has some effect on noctournal animals, but if you're
>>trying to defend the age-old astrologer's "the moon effects the tides, and
>>they're water, and since the human body is 98% water, the moon must affect
>>people" argument, then I would really love to see some data on that.

to which Jim Merritt replies
>Ask your wife or girl friend...
>(hint: ask for PERIODic events with a CYCLE of appox a lunar month.)

The idea that the human female menstrual cycle is somehow connected to the lunar
cycle has been circulating for years (millenia?), but age doesn't make it any
more correct.  For starters the lunar cycle (full moon to full moon) is
29.53  days while the human menstrual cycle is (on average) 28, so the
two AREN'T even the same period.   And if you're female (or are male and have
a wife or significant other you can ask about this) then you know that 28 days
is a nice average, but rarely do you hit exactly 28 days (or 29.53 days for
that matter).  There is quite a range of lengths of menstrual cycles both
between individuals and at different times within the life of an individual.
The length of an individual's cycle is determined by environmental and
biological factors (overall health, nutrition, exercise, stress, illness, age,
medication, etc.) but not by the gravity of the moon.  The gravitational pull of
the moon on a human body is roughly equal to the gravitational pull of a
couch you're sitting on.  (If you calculate the tidal difference, the couch
overwhelms the moon by a factor of a million or so...)

What is happening is that people are confusing correlation with causation,
the lunar cycle is a handy rule of thumb for timing menstrual cycles, but that
doesn't mean that one is causing the other.  (This fallacy shows up far too
often in all sorts of arguments, such as "Lack of prayer in public schools
has caused the downfall of the American education.  Since prayer was been
banned in the early 60's, the national average SAT scores have dropped by
x points..."  Both statements are true, prayer was banned and SAT scores have
fallen, but that doesn't mean one is the cause of the other.)

Another version of the argument runs something like "it's part of evolutional
history of us.  Our ancestors were amphibians/fish/whatever that had reproduc-
tive cycles tied to the tides, much like the spawning of comtemporary grunions."
This argument at least tries to give us a causative agent, but if it were true
then most (if not all) descendents of those early amphibians or whatever would
have fertility cycles tied to the lunar cycle.  Instead, examining the cycle
for various mammals shows that the lengths of their periods are all over the
place ranging from mice and rats with a cycle of 5 days to 37 days for chimp-
anzees.  The only other mammal that matches the human cycle of 28 days is the
opossum.

Suppose for a minute that there WAS a causative agency between the lunar cycle
and the menstrual cycle.  That would mean somehow the phase of the moon is
triggering the menstrual period of human females.  That would mean that at some
point in the cycle (say first quarter) ALL the women on Earth would begin having
their period and the sanitary products on supermarket shelves would all disap-
pear at once.  Instead, what really happens is that the number of women having
their period at any one time is uniformly spread throughout the lunar cycle,
which is the same thing as saying there is no causative connection between the
two.  In fact, (taking this to its absurd extreme) if there REALLY was a tidal
cause affecting the menstrual cycle, the 29.53 day lunar cycle is the wrong one
to look at.  Instead we should see women following the earthly tides and having
two menstrual cycles per day!  (I will refrain from making any sexist jokes in
poor taste here.)

Then Gabriel Velasco pointed out:
>When my wife was pregnant, a doctor told her that sometimes they pre-
>fer to think of a full term pregnancy as 10 lunar months.

So what?  Human pregnancies run for roughly 10 menstrual cycles for biological
reasons that have nothing to do with any astronomical influences.  They can
just as easily think of the pregnancy lasting 280 solar days, three quarters of
one orbit of the earth around the sun, one third of the time between oppositions
with Mars, the length of time between the first and last appearance of Venus
as either an evening or morning star [now THAT'S too much of a coincidence,
there MUST be a connection!  :^) ], one fifth of a presidential term of office,
etc.

If you want to dig further in these and other lunar cycle myths check out "Moon
Madness" by George Abell in the book "Science and the Paranormal" edited by
George Abell and Barry Singer (Scribner, 1981) or the article "The Moon Was
Full, and Nothing Happened" in the Winter 85-86 issue of "Skeptical Inquirer".

Marc Hairston--Center for Space Sciences--Univ of Texas at Dallas
SPAN address  UTSPAN::UTADNX::UTD750::HAIRSTON
______________________________________________

I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what the University of Texas System's opinion about
menstrual cycles is, but I sure they must have one....somewhere.....and I'll
bet we disagree....

------------------------------

Date: 29 Mar 89 00:15:25 GMT
From: meccts!meccsd![e-mail]  (Scotian)
Subject: Re: Success with cold fusion reported

Miroslav Kocic writes:
|The discussion in this newsgroup has so far been about the authenticity of the
|Utah breakthrough, but I have two different concerns.  First, what if fusion
|turns out to create problems we don't foresee?  We didn't foresee radioactive
|waste or meltdowns back when fission was at this stage,

How on earth do you come to this conclusion?

|and, if history teaches
|anything, it teaches that every benefit has a proportional price.  Second, what
|if cold fusion becomes the crack-cocaine of energy production?  I can imagine
|a thousand fanatics in 750 terrorist cells making an H-bomb in their kitchen.

I'm sure you can...
--
..............................................................................
Scott C. Jensen
[e-mail]

------------------------------

End of SPACE Digest V9 #324
*******************