What's New Robert L. Park 18 May 2012

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 18 May 2012    Washington, DC 

1. BOMBS: AN "OPEN-MIC BOMB" IS DETONATED ON THE HOUSE FLOOR.
At a nuclear safety summit in March, President Obama, unaware that a nearby 
microphone was live, told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would 
have “more flexibility” in missile defense negotiations after the 2012 
elections. The United States currently maintains an arsenal of 5,113 
nuclear warheads, down from a peak of 31,225 in 1967, but it’s still vastly 
beyond any conceivable need, expensive to maintain and a target for 
diversion by terrorists. Nevertheless, determined to sabotage any Obama 
initiative, House Republicans voted yesterday to block nuclear stockpile 
reduction. 

2. FIRE RETARDANTS: CHICAGO TRIBUNE EXPOSES INDUSTRY SCAM.
Last week the Chicago Tribune published a riveting four-part 
series, "Playing With Fire," about the widespread use of toxic flame-
retardant chemicals. It's not like it's a trade-off, where fire safety 
comes at the cost of increased chemical pollution; so-called "fire 
retardants" do nothing to suppress the inferno when foam upholstery is 
ignited. Liberal senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) was so outraged by the Tribune 
exposé that he demanded to know why the Consumer Product Safety Commission 
had not implemented the furniture-flammability rules it proposed in 2008.  
Although I've been kept informed by my friend Arlene Blum, a UC Berkeley 
chemist who is the Executive Director of the Green Science Policy 
Institute, I confess that this is the first time I’ve mentioned the flame 
retardant scandal in WN.  In my defense, there is more bad science than I 
can cover, but from now on I will include the fire retardant scandal.

3. HELIUM CRISIS: THE WORLD IS RUNNING OUT OF HELIUM.
Physicists, it must be acknowledged, have a certain reverence for "helium,"