More on asbestos: M. Fumento, "The asbestos rip-off," Amer. Spectator, Oct 1989; M.J. Bennett, "Asbestos," Priorities, (Amer. C. Sci. & Health, New York). [The fiber concentrations quoted in the editorial were kindly given to me by sanitary engineering consultant J.E. Kinney of Ann Arbor, Mich] "How a PR firm executed the Alar scare" (Wall St. J. 10/3), or science by PR agency, is a faithful duplicate of how the "Nuclear winter" hoax was palmed off by a PR agency hired for $200,000 [AtE Jun 84]. Available in Fort Freedom D. Brooks, "Journalists and others for saving the planet," W. St. J. 10/5. (Soon in FF.) H.W. Elsaesser, "The emperor's new clothes"(ozone layer), L.A. Times, 9/3, available in Fort Freedom. T.G. Donlan, "Lights out? Utilities' generating capacity is suffering dangerous strains," Barron's, 10/2/89.
Pocket guide to chemical hazards. Good, cheap reference, $7 from US GPO, Washington, DC 20402, stock no. 017-033-00426-9.
A second large volume (332 pp.) of the inimitable Prof Wm.R. Allen, The Midnight Economist, introduced by Milton Friedman, $12.95 from ICS Press, 243 Kearney St., San Francisco, CA 94108 is out
¾for all who seek knowledge with entertainment, with heavy doses of both!T. Bethell, "Campus reading: socialism by the textbook," Ntl.
Review, 10/13/89--depressing, but very insightful.
L.E. Jerome's Crystal Power: the ultimate placebo effect ($18.95, 195pp., hrdbd., Prometheus, 700 E. Amherst St., Buffalo,NY 14215) is another good one in the series of exposing believers who pay a voluntary stupidity tax to the superstition hucksters, but I. Asimov's The Tyrannosaurus Prescription ($19.95, same publisher) is a disappointment, for it pretends to be science, when Asimov is often unable to leave his home ground of science fiction. The classics of science fiction, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, knew their science intimately, and so do the best contemporary SF writers like Jerry Pournelle or James Hogan. Asimov must have been good, too, when he first made a name for himself, but since then he has kept up only by reading the Sunday supplements
¾or so it would seem from his uncritical poppycock on the ozone layer, greenhouse, over-population, nuclear war, solar energy and the rest of the stuff that you can buy cheaper in Parade and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
|
|
Vol. 17, No. 3
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Issues Issue/No.: Vol. 17, No. 3 Date: December 01, 2004 03:12 PM Title: Bipartisan deceit
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
|