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634431_0 | Indonesia Still Caught In Population Squeeze | To the Editor: Your Aug. 27 front-page article on Indonesia states that "Indonesia averted a population disaster" by dropping its annual growth rate from 2.4 percent to 1.8 percent. This drop only means that the population will double in 38 years, rather than 31. The island of Java is the size of New York State and has 120 million people -- one of the densest populations on earth. At its current rate of growth, Java will have 160 million people by the turn of the century. World Bank optimism for Indonesia contrasts starkly with the World Health Organization's bleak population forecast. Can a doubling of the per capita income be sustained if the population doubles in 40 years? The population program of President Suharto has failed because Indonesians perceive the central government as less the governing force than customary village law. My experience is that most Indonesians still regard a large family as status symbol and social security. Their "cooperation" with government family planning programs is mainly a put-on. WARREN HAYS Moraga, Calif., Aug. 30, 1993 |
634420_0 | World Economies | |
635690_0 | Florence Starts Safety Measures For Monuments | In an effort to protect art treasures and historic monuments from terrorist attacks and vandalism, officials in Florence have begun implementing stringent security measures around some of the city's most famous landmarks. Beginning this month visitors will find traffic-free zones and no-parking areas around Florence's central cathedral, the Santa Maria del Fiore, and the Franciscan church of Santa Croce as well as around numerous museums. Security experts also are hurrying to complete a high-tech monitoring system, including radar, electromagnetic barriers and microwave sensors. The electronic security system, based on military hardware, had been under study for more than a year but the project was accelerated after a car bomb exploded near the Uffizi galleries on May 27, killing five people and damaging the museum. The new security system, which Mayor Giorgio Morales said will be installed by the end of the year, will safeguard the Piazza della Signoria's open-air museum, the medieval city hall in Palazzo Vecchio and the Loggia della Signoria as well as the Uffizi, which reopened less than a month after the bombing. Police will back up the $100,000 system from a command post filled with television monitors and be able to address via loudspeaker anyone breaking the security perimeter. More prosaic security measures are being taken elsewhere in Italy after additional car bombs in late July damaged two churches in Rome and a modern art museum in Milan. In Pompeii, authorities have increased police patrols to monitor the hitherto unprotected outside wall of the buried Roman town. In Venice, police protection has been doubled at selected sites and, in Pisa, police are guarding the Leaning Tower around the clock. In Rome, city officials are closing streets and erecting barriers around the most important sites. They are hampered, however, by the sheer numbers of sites to be protected -- an initial list of the city's highest priority sites included 59 monuments, churches and museums. TRAVEL ADVISORY |
635578_2 | MORMONS PENALIZE DISSIDENT MEMBERS | control struggle between dissidents and church leaders. Church Officials' Fear He said church officials "think the church is fragmenting into different factions and this crackdown is an attempt to keep us together." Mr. Peck said church authorities feared that what they consider false teachings among some members could grow into churchwide apostasy, which Mormons believe destroyed the ancient church established by Jesus Christ and his apostles. They believe that their faith is Christ's church, which was not restored until the early 1800's. Action taken by disciplinary councils range from doing nothing to excommunication, in which a person's name is removed from the rolls of the church and the person cannot serve in the church or worship in temples unless rebaptized. Disciplinary measure short of excommunication are probation or disfellowship, in which a member is temporarily denied certain privileges like praying in church or participating in sacraments. Ms. Anderson and Ms. Whitesides do not believe that their local leaders acted independently. They assert that general authorities compiled files on them and handed them to their local leaders with instructions on what to do. Reported Intimidation Ms. Anderson, 49, said she assumed that she had angered Mormon authorities by documenting instances of a few lay church clergy abusing their authority and intimidating or threatening members. She has written and talked openly about her findings. Ms. Anderson said her stake president asked her to repudiate her work or else face disciplinary measures. But Ms. Anderson said she would stand by her research, despite the possibility of losing the privileges of church membership. "This is a case of individual conscience. I can't turn against those whose cases I documented," she said. Besides her disfellowship, Ms. Whitesides said she had been warned against publicly criticizing church leaders or talking about her controversial belief in praying to a Mother in Heaven. If she violates those terms, she may face excommunication. "I don't want to be excommunicated," she said, while acknowledging that she has not attended church in almost a year. "I love the church, it's part of my being. I also have to consider my children who would be greatly affected." Yet, Ms. Whitesides said that she would continue to speak out on issues that concerned her and that she expected others to do the same. "Changes never come about unless noise is made," she said. "And those who speak the loudest, pay the biggest price." |
635510_1 | Revisiting Immigration and the Open-Door Policy | best. Unlike the first decades of the 1900's, when the nation went through a similar influx and debate about immigration, there is now a significant body of research tracking immigrants from the moment they arrive. Most academic and government studies conclude that the presence of immigrants has some overall benefit; few say they harm the economy. Yet perceptions die hard. Black leaders and labor unions argue that the job market is swamped with cheaply paid workers. Spokesmen of the nativist right see the newcomers swelling the welfare rolls. Disputing them, Jeffrey S. Passel, head of the immigrant research project at the Urban Institute, a research group in Washington, said "places that got immigrants during the 1980's generally did better in terms of wage growth than places that didn't." Immigrants, said Gregory De Freitas, an economist and immigration expert at Hofstra University in New York, "help expand the demand for labor and increase the number of jobs, which tends to outweigh any negative effects they may have." During the 1980's, average wages for native-born workers hit a plateau, and those of recently arrived immigrants declined slightly. When David Card, an economist at Princeton University, examined the impact of the arrival of 125,000 Cubans in the 1980 Mariel boatlift, which increased Miami's labor force by 7 percent in an overnight expansion rarely seen in recent American history, he found that "the Mariel influx appears to have had virtually no effect on the wages or unemployment rates of less-skilled workers," whether white or black. One recent study by the Urban Institute concluded that immigrants actually help create more jobs in urban areas than does the native population, especially in the non-manufacturing sector. Some other studies show that immigrants are more likely than the rest of the population to be self-employed and start their own businesses. 'A Multiplier Effect' "The question always seems to be phrased in terms of immigrants taking jobs from Americans, when lots of Americans have jobs because of the impact of immigrants on the economy," said Mr. De Freitas, who wrote "Inequality at Work: Hispanics in the U.S. Labor Force." "Immigrant restaurants and businesses pay taxes, and their workers buy clothes and food and homes in neighborhoods that were formerly dead. There's a multiplier effect, but that doesn't always get captured." In fact, a 1991 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that the male immigrant "faces |
635297_5 | Streetscapes/Wadleigh Secondary School; Renovating a 1902 Novelty | According to Mary Dietz, the project manager for URS, the steel structure of the main tower needed complete reconstruction. The exterior was cleaned reasonably well and copper replaced the original slate roof. "It wasn't an official restoration but we tried to maintain the character," Ms. Dietz said. "Some of the floors slope; it's an old building." Wadleigh is not a designated landmark but is a well-known building. In a bureaucratic environment there is often a self-protective instinct towards overkill in restoration projects. Sometimes it is easier to ask for $5 million more than to draw a line between the necessary and the optional. But what is refreshing about the Wadleigh work is the sense of intelligent discrimination in just where to use the restorer's brush. The overall effect is that of a new school in a wealthy suburb. But closer inspection shows that the baseboards and much of the other trim has been maintained along with the high ceilings and wide walls. Some marble paneling from the 40's was retained, as were various other period details. But the baseboards were not treated like high art; they were simply sanded and repainted. New air-conditioning systems have been dropped into the classrooms and the hallways with respect, but not with slavish deference for the cove moldings and other details. The Gothic-style auditorium on 115th Street has been simply and serviceably redone. There is little here that provokes a question of preservation versus function. Instead, it's a sensible and happy mixture depending on discretion rather than dogma. Only two elements clamor for renewed attention. Some memorial stained glass has been clumsily reglazed with heavy muntins, and the tile setting marks the modern collapse of what was once a real art down to the level of novice home repair. When Wadleigh opens its doors for its latest group of students, more will have changed than the physical restoration of the building. When the building closed for restoration, it was an intermediate school; now, according to Mr. Moody, the principal, it will encompass three specialized schools, all with 6th through 12th graders: a school of writing and publishing, a school of the arts and a school of science and technology. As he was preparing for his students' return one day recently, Mr. Moody looked around and said: "This is a Class A school building, never before done in Harlem -- it's state of the art." |
635667_0 | Tough Guys | THIS WEEK |
635316_2 | 'In the Shadow of Moloch' | citing their texts incorrectly, even in his letter of response: you don't have to transform hedonistic gods to make them "a loving god" (note the assumption that only monotheistic gods are loving); many polytheistic, hedonistic gods (Krishna, for instance) already are loving. In his book, to take an example at random, Dr. Bergmann cites an ancient Hindu myth of father-daughter incest, but he gets it wrong, stating, without evidence, that the avenging son shot the incestuous father in the penis. As for the toleration of father-daughter incest and, indeed, father-daughter murder, Dr. Bergmann regards the conversation between Iphigenia and her father, who is about to sacrifice her, as "a tender scene between father and daughter," and he interprets Antigone's death, too, as an admirable self-sacrifice for her father. But why should daughters be regarded as willingly dying for their fathers, while sons are regarded as the victims of their fathers' aggressions? My opinion of Dr. Bergmann's opinion of pederasty is based on statements like his reference to Laius as "the father of pederasty about whom nothing favorable can be said." I am, on the other hand, delighted to learn that Martin Bergmann, himself the son of a most distinguished father, has produced a son who evidently loves both his father and his father's book. But Bergmann fils's filial affection substantiates one of my points of difference with Bergmann pere: that not all fathers want to hurt their sons, that there are what D. W. Winnicott might have called "good enough fathers," of which I am not surprised to learn that Martin Bergmann is one. I certainly acknowledge that the urges to commit incest with or even to murder a child do exist and that some parents actually act on these impulses, and I accept Michael Bergmann's point that incest and murder are not the same thing and that his father was primarily concerned with murder. But I would still argue three counterpoints: 1. The whole psychoanalytic establishment is founded on the assumption that within the family romance, lust and aggression are inextricably related, a conflation perpetuated in the popular use of the term "abuse" as a euphemism for psychologically harmful sexual intimacy. There is much about incest, as well as about murder, in Dr. Bergmann's book, and his emphasis on the fathers' aggression plays into the hands of those who would regard all children as the victims of either, or |
635569_1 | Raids on Miners Follow Killings in Amazon | are tired of being killed." In the Colombian Amazon, the authorities prepared this week to deport 29 Brazilian miners detained in raids. And in Brazil, a hard line toward the miners was voiced on Thursday by the nation's new Minister of the Environment and the Amazon. All miners will be expelled from Brazil's Yanomami reserve, Rubens Ricupero , the new minister, vowed at his swearing-in ceremony. The Brazilian police are concluding a two-month operation that has expelled 1,500 miners from the Pico da Neblina National Park, a protected area next to Venezuela. On Wednesday, a Brazilian judge in the Amazon frontier city of Boa Vista issued arrest warrants for 19 miners suspected of involvement in the killings. In addition, four more suspects have been arrested over the last week in Boa Vista. In Venezuela, the first investigative team is to arrive at the site of the killings next week, a month after Brazil's Justice Minister visited the charred village near the poorly marked border, thinking he was in Brazil. Brazil's Indian protection service, Funai, initially reported that 73 Yanomami had been killed in Brazil. Funai's president was dismissed two weeks ago because the reports were false. In one odd sequel to the case, Indians marched earlier this month through Puerto Ayacucho, capital of Amazonas state, carrying placards that read: "Brewer Carias and Chagnon out of Yanomami Territory." Charles Brewer Carias, a Venezuelan naturalist, and Napoleon A. Chagnon, an American anthropologist, were appointed earlier this month to a presidential commission that will investigate the killings. Violating a fundamental rule in Latin American politics, the two academics have bluntly attacked the role of Roman Catholic missions in Amazonas state. They argue that the Yanomami who are attracted to live near missions are more suspectible to disease than those who live according to their traditional ways, dispersed in the forest. The Catholic authorities, who for the most part did not respond to these criticisms in recent years, have now decided to flex their political muscles on the local and national level. The march stemmed from a church-organized gathering of Indians. "All the anthropologists want to do is research, and research is not the same as helping," Bishop Ignacio Velasco Garcia said in an interview here on Thursday. "We are not going to recreate the abuses of 500 years ago, but we are not going to keep the Yanomami frozen in a human museum." |
635951_4 | Zoos Find a New Role In Conserving Species | be considered only as "two of many weapons in the arsenal available to zoo biologists" to save species, says Dr. Michael Hutchins, the zoo and aquarium association's director of conservation and science. Preservation Around the World For years, biologists have fanned out from the New York society's headquarters in the Bronx to study animals in the wild. Some have achieved something of a swashbuckling image. Among them are George Schaller with mountain gorillas in Africa and pandas in China, and David Western with elephants in Kenya. They often became conservationists out of necessity, to preserve the animals they studied. More recently, the resources of the society, including the zoo, have been more deliberately and systematically focused on preservation. Under Dr. Schaller's leadership, for example, the society has worked with the Chinese Government to set aside a 100,000-square-mile nature preserve in the Qian Tang (pronounced Chahng Tahng) region of Tibet, one of the largest and most unspoiled ecosystems on earth. In Central America, the society is leading a cooperative effort by seven nations to create a protected wildlife corridor stretching from Belize and Guatemala to Panama, along which cougars can travel their natural prehistoric migration route between North and South America. With habitats for large animals becoming increasingly degraded and fragmented, Bronx Zoo veterinarians have been closely monitoring animal health in the field. "It is a good indicator of environmental degradation," said Dr. William B. Karesh, a Bronx-based field veterinarian. The veterinarians also put out epidemiological brush fires in the wild. Animals are more vulnerable to disease and environmental toxins when habitats and populations contract, and zoo scientists have mounted rescue missions to save disease-ravaged populations. Scientists at the zoo are investigating the effects of human handling on animals that must be moved around in the wild, a necessary evil in managing diminished populations. "What we're finding, for instance, is that actually knocking down some of these animals," as must be done to capture them, "has profound physiological consequences, and we're going to have to be much more careful than we've ever been in the past about what we do," said Dr. John Robinson, a vice president of the society. Zoo scientists are working to develop genetic markers for elephant ivory in an effort to trace illegally traded ivory to its area of origin. They are studying the effects of temperature on anacondas, which are increasingly being hunted for their skins, |
636949_1 | Next Steps for Car Exhaust | that make the bigger converters used on cars are looking ahead to a new generation of technology. Catalytic converters are very good at catching the hydrocarbons that slip unburned through automobile engines. But the converters do not work until they reach 700 degrees Fahrenheit, which generally does not happen until the vehicle has been driven for several miles. To meet the new pollution standards that will not allow for those few minutes of dirty motoring, researchers have tried various strategies to catch the hydrocarbons emitted in the first three or four miles, which can be half the pollution that a car emits in a 20-mile drive. Corning Inc., which already makes the ceramic honeycombs used in most converters, said it believes it has a new method that will trap nearly all the hydrocarbons until the converter is hot enough to digest them. The device uses activated carbon that -- through a microscope -- "looks like a deck of cards that has been shuffled too many times," said Mary Ann Lando, a Corning spokeswoman. The bits of carbon meet at odd angles, creating spaces where hydrocarbon molecules can collect. The hydrocarbons are "adsorbed" rather than "absorbed," meaning that they are caught in a mechanical bond rather than a chemical one. The device will hold several grams of hydrocarbons, and for the first minute, hold emissions down to three one-hundredths of a gram per mile. That would easily meet the strictest engine standard now on the books, California's standard for an "ultra-low emitting vehicle." When the converter is warmed up, the contents of the hydrocarbon trap can be flushed into the converter with heated air. The device is still under development. It is now twice the size of a regular automobile catalytic converter, consuming valuable space under the car. And for many cars it would need more than a minute's capacity. In addition, a car would need another system to take care of the two other pollutants that a converter burns: carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. Corning is also developing an electrically-heated catalyst, which several manufacturers of auto components said was the probable solution to the problem. Corning said it thought, however, that different cars will use different systems and that its hydrocarbon trap will be cost competitive. A disadvantage of the electrically-heated catalyst is that it may require the car to have a bigger battery and charging system. MATTHEW L. WALD |
636892_0 | Sailing Back in Time | |
636793_0 | Oil and Tourism Don't Mix, Inciting Amazon Battle | Standing on a riverbank outside his Amazon tourist lodge, Pieter Jan Brouwer raised his rifle one day last year and shot out the tires, headlights and windshields of a dozen trucks and bulldozers that were dredging gravel for an American oil company road. "I had the disaster of having the hotel full and 14 guests pounding on my door at 4 A.M. threatening to sue me," Mr. Brouwer recalled of the round-the-clock dredging operations by a subcontractor for Maxus Ecuador Inc., the oil company. "If you come to see the rain forest, to watch birds and to enjoy tranquillity, you can't imagine what it is like to wake up and see dump trucks and bulldozers." Mr. Brouwer, a Dutch businessman who operates the Amazon Jungle Resort Village, may not exactly be Ecuador's environmental Minuteman, but his gunshots warn of a looming collision between two radically different views of Ecuador's Amazon. Oil companies depict the area as a pool of underground wealth, two billion barrels of oil that could lift this nation out of chronic poverty. Organizers of "nature tourism" argue that the Amazon, one of the world's richest biological regions, should be preserved as it is for tourists, scientists and the region's 100,000 Indian inhabitants. Conflicts Are Common Conflicts between preservation and development are common in the eight-nation Amazon region, but Ecuador's circumstances have thrown the debate into fast forward. With about one-third of this Colorado-size nation covered by Amazon rain forest, oil drillers and tourist operators increasingly say the area is too small for both industries. On the scale of economic value, oil, Ecuador's largest export, currently outweighs tourism, Ecuador's fourth largest source of foreign exchange. "Ecuadoreans need oil for development," Francisco Costa Coloma, Ecuador's Energy and Mines Minister, said in a recent interview here. According to Unicef, 79 percent of Ecuador's population is considered poor and 39 percent of the children under the age of 5 suffer from malnutrition. Mr. Costa noted that this country of 11 million people relied on oil sales for half its export earnings and for 62 percent of its Government budget. A map in his office shows that the country's 45,000-square-mile Amazon region is already largely carpeted by oil company exploration and production blocks. With most of Ecuador's proven reserves in the Amazon, the Government plans to put up for bids in January six more Amazon blocks, totaling 5,000 square miles. In December |
633044_0 | METRO DIGEST | ADVANCES FOR THE MENTALLY HANDICAPPED Advocates for the retarded say that advances in technology, including switches that respond to eye or head movements, or even a smile or a breath, have the potential to revolutionize the care and education of the mentally handicapped, giving them a new independence and easing their transition into the community. A1. NEW YORK CITY GIULIANI, SMILING AND RELAXED In his 1989 campaign for mayor, Rudolph W. Giuliani was a political rookie who struck many New Yorkers as both stiff and unpredictable, an unnerving mix for a man who wanted to lead the city. Now a veteran, he is more relaxed and less defensive, dancing the two-step at a hoedown in SoHo, grinning without end through countless parades, and even, disarmingly, poking fun at himself. A1. CROWD CHEERS DINKINS IN CROWN HEIGHTS Playing to his base and cheered on by an exuberant crowd, Mayor Dinkins stepped away from a spate of recent political troubles and was swamped by black supporters on the streets of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Grinning and grasping the hands of men, women and children as they strained toward him, the Mayor appeared relaxed and at ease in what marked a high point in a difficult bid for re-election. B2. SOME DISABLED PROTEST A TELETHON About 25 disabled people in wheelchairs and on crutches protested outside the Park Central Hotel on Seventh Avenue, near 55th Street, which housed a Manhattan telephone call-in site for the 28th annual telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. B2. ASBESTOS CRISIS PROVIDES OPPORTUNITIES The school asbestos crisis has provided a wealth of political and public-relations opportunities for city officials, from the Mayor to his deputies, commissioners and opponents, and even sometime warring factions of parents. B3. A TRIP TO A SHOPPING WAREHOUSE Ikea, which vexed New York State's Department of Taxation and Finance with advertisements that touted New Jersey's lower sales taxes as an incentive to get New Yorkers to its Elizabeth store, has begun offering round-trip bus service from Manhattan on weekends. B3. Talk of kidnapping prominent Americans was rejected as unworkable, a transcript shows. B4. A car driven by a Hasidic man struck a black woman in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. B2. REGION RULING COSTS NEW JERSEY Instead of the usual highly publicized competition between New York and New Jersey to lure sports teams and corporate headquarters, this summer's border war was played out stealthily and in Washington. |
633024_1 | Technology Revolution Reaches the Retarded | making people much more independent than anyone would have thought possible," said Ronald Byrne, a spokesman for the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. "It makes it much more likely that a person will remain in the community for their entire life and that the family will be able to stay intact." But the families of the retarded, and their advocates, find themselves thwarted by a lack of available equipment, as well as a lack of trained engineers and other professionals in the relatively new and low-paying field. And researchers complain that it is often difficult to get financing to develop technology that some argue provides only marginal improvements in the lives of very impaired people. A look at the technology, both in use and on the drawing board, makes clear why the dreams live on. Switches that respond to eye or head movements, or even a smile or a breath, are already giving the retarded more control over their environment, allowing them to turn on the television or the lights, open a door or a window, or even to operate household appliances. Some of the latest developments are in recreation, like an electric ball-tosser that helps children with poor motor control take part in games. The technology includes sophisticated equipment like speech synthesizers, talking calculators and special microwaves that require less decision-making about how long each item must cook. But many developments are in low-tech items like a one-handed can opener, a spoon with a built-up bowl to prevent spills, and a compartmented pill holder that makes it easier to remember to take medication. Homes for the retarded are being equipped with telephones that have pictures of Mom, the doctor, or a police officer alongside their phone numbers. And for the more impaired, phones are set so that they automatically dial a programmed number when any button is pushed. So far, most of the new computer equipment is geared for those with physical handicaps but normal intelligence. Many innovations in technology for the retarded, like computer programs that can teach them to read or to communicate, are not readily available. "We haven't even scratched the surface for people who don't have the ability to reason," said Dr. Mary Cerreto, assistant commissioner for the Office of Quality Enhancement for the Department of Mental Retardation in Massachusetts. "It hasn't gotten to most people's daily lives." One reason |
633040_1 | Finding Gold, of a Sort, in Landfills | of dollars in closing costs. Officials in some states like California, where there are already tough landfill closing laws, have begun to investigate the practice. "This is all about economics," said Randall Forbes, manager of refuse disposal for the Department of Public Works in Mendocino County, Calif., which has begun studying whether to mine its landfill. "The real benefit may be that we can recover landfill space and use it again." Proponents of garbage mining, however, caution that in many places the cost of digging up garbage can easily exceed that of simply buying new land. And some environmentalists note that it is far easier to recycle materials before they are buried. "This is not a waste management strategy of the highest order," said Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has its headquarters in New York City. "It underscores the absurdity of entombing everything we throw out." Federal environmental officials said that it was far too soon to draw any conclusions about mining's benefits or speculate about the impact of new regulations. "This is really cutting-edge stuff that we have not had a chance to evaluate," said Bruce Weddle, director of the municipal waste division of the Environmental Protection Agency. But it appears that in some cases, mining garbage may save a community money. For example, Collier County, Fla., which includes the city of Naples, has been excavating a landfill to recover an unlikely commodity: the dirt that is spread each day over newly dumped garbage to hold down odors and discourage rodents. This dirt, or cover soil, is extremely expensive in Florida, and officials estimate that they save about $500,000 a year by using the dirt extracted from old garbage mounds to cover newer, smellier, garbage. As the dirt is excavated, metals, tires and other recyclable materials are also recovered and the rest of the exhumed trash is reburied in a newer part of the landfill that has better environmental protections, said William Lorenz, the country's environmental services administrator. Some businesses are also looking to landfill mining. Mr. Forbes, the Mendocino County official, told of a lumber company that was hoping to sell dirt and decomposed bark from its landfill to the county for cover soil, and in the process clean up the site and turn it into a marketable piece of property. Elsewhere, state officials like those in New York are investigating |
633046_0 | Boa Vista Journal; Gold Miners and Indians: Brazil's Frontier War | The center of a white backlash against Indians is found in this Amazon frontier town's central square, a horseshoe-shaped plaza dominated by a statue of a miner in a broad-brimmed hat, panning for gold. "Pseudomassacre," said the Governor of Roraima State in the modern government palace here, long before anthropologists reduced the toll of Yanomami Indians slain by miners in mid-August from 73 to 16 and said the killings took place in Venezuela, not Brazil. "In truth, what the Indians do is cook the limbs of the body and eat them like bananas," the Governor, Ottomar de Sousa Pinto, said on television to rally support for his constituents, the Amazon gold miners. When a small group of Indian supporters demonstrated on the square, not one politician emerged from the steel and glass state legislature building. But big crowds turn out for demonstrations against Aldo Mongiano, Roraima's Roman Catholic Bishop and an advocate of Indian rights. At one protest, miners set fire to the Bishop's lawn, which faces the central square. After another protest, a gunslinger offered on a local radio program to kill the Bishop for "the right price." "The Bishop is still alive -- that shows how tolerant we are, right?" said Riobranco Brasil, an adviser for the Council in Defense of Roraima, a ranchers' and miners' group. "Of course, we pray every night that he will die in his sleep." Miners Threaten Lynchings In late August, the smoldering frontier war between whites and Indians erupted anew, as Macuxi and Wapixana Indians blockaded roads and took two miners hostage to press for federal recognition of their traditional land in the Serra Raposa do Sol area. White settlers and miners took five Indians hostage in reprisal. After the police freed the Indians, whites surrounded the police station and threatened to lynch the Indians. "If the Brazilian Government tries to take over that area, there is really going to be an armed conflict," Haroldo Amoras dos Santos, the state's planning secretary, warned in an interview about the proposed reserve. According to state officials, the reserve includes 340 cattle ranches, many run by white families who have lived there for several generations. "If you count the national parks and Indian reservations, 53 percent of Roraima will be under federal control," said Mr. Brasil, who helped form the Defense Council last year to block the creation of new Indian reserves. Similar Amazon groups |
621628_4 | New Wave in Health Care: Visits by Video | is surprisingly easy to diagnose a patient from hundreds of miles away. Barbara Bevins, nurse manager of the emergency department of Dodge County Hospital in Eastman, Ga., said her office regularly does cardiology consultations via video with doctors at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, 152 miles away. "Today we focused the camera on the jugular veins" of a patient with chronic heart problems, she said, "and the doctors could see how distended they were." Video examinations are but one of the new medical applications of everyday technology. Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, short on storage space for radiologic images like CAT scans, MRI's and old-fashioned X-rays, keeps them in a warehouse three miles away in Somerville. In rush-hour traffic, the trip from the warehouse to the hospital takes far too long, said a hospital spokesman, Martin Bander, so Massachusetts General is testing a system called Radiology Storage Tracking Archiving and Retrieval, which is also being tested by hospitals in Dallas, St. Paul and Mission Viejo, Calif. The system allows a clear picture of the film to be transmitted to a screen at the affiliated hospital, where doctors can read the film. This futuristic form of fax is in use in places like the clinic at Yellowstone National Park, where X-rays of injured hikers can be read by radiologists in West Park Hospital in Cody, Wyo. Sensing profit in the new applications of technology, companies are maarketing products that join medicine and telephones. The New Jersey-based MEDphone Corporation manufacturers only one product, called MDphone, which looks like a hard-sided suitcase and contains a portable defribrillator, which can restart a heart by remote control over a standard or cellular phone line. In the last two years, 100 of the $7,000 units have been sold, mostly to large companies, said MEDphone's president, Eric Wachtel. When activated, he said, the device dials the nearest participating hospital and allows someone with the patient to talk to an emergency room doctor. When the disposable adhesive electrodes are attached to the patient's chest, the doctor receives the patient's electrocardiogram, and, if necessary, the doctor can press a button to apply an electric jolt. Less dramatic are a variety of home-testing devices which allow patients to stay at home while a doctor monitors heart rate, blood pressure and temperature over the phone. A study by Arthur D. Little Inc., a management consulting firm, last summer cites |
621557_3 | Mexico's Position on Aliens Contradicted by Past Deeds | United States was intercepted by the Coast Guard 200 miles off Honduras. The boat, registered in Honduras, was allowed to land in Honduras, and two lawyers from the Immigration and Naturalization Service flew there to interview the Chinese. The lawyers determined that five of them were political refugees, a former Government official deeply involved in immigration matters said, and that about 40 others had claims worth pursing. But United Nations officials in Geneva, who had final say in the matter, determined that none of the Chinese qualified as political refugees, and Honduras returned them to China at American expense. Crucial Court Ruling Immigration experts expect that the United States will continue to seek other countries' cooperation in helping to process and repatriate illegal aliens bound for the United States. Indeed, a new Administration policy calls for the interdiction and "redirection" of boats smuggling aliens. The Supreme Court ruled recently that Federal and international laws prohibiting the summary return of aliens do not apply to those stopped in international waters or outside the United States. And immigration experts believe that ruling has emboldened the Administration. Some human-rights advocates are concerned that the Government is pushing the limits of its powers in seizing and redirecting foreign vessels. The United States, through a treaty with the Haitian Government, has permission to interdict only Haitian boats. In the latest case, a State Department official, Joseph Snyder, said one boat captain gave the Coast Guard permission to take control. Because the other boats were believed to be registered in Taiwan, the Government asked the Taiwan Government for permission to board them. Taiwan officials said they could not confirm that the boats were indeed were sailing under a Taiwanese flag "but that they had no problems with the Coast Guard boarding and inspecting them," Mr. Snyder said. Lucas Guttentag, an immigration expert at the American Civil Liberties Union, questioned the Government's actions of the past week. "Is the U.S. Government obfuscating or blatantly violating the international law of the seas?" he asked. "This would seem to come perilously close to piracy." Correction: July 16, 1993, Friday An article yesterday about other countries' repatriation of aliens bound for the United States misstated the circumstances of the fatal shooting of a Chinese alien in Honduras in some editions. According to a former American official, he was killed at a detention center, not while boarding a plane for repatriation. |
621556_3 | Mexico's Position on Aliens Contradicted by Past Deeds | Frelick, senior policy analyst with the United States Committee for Refugees, an advocacy group based in Washington. In addition to Mexico, the Clinton Administration has enlisted the cooperation of other foreign governments in keeping potential applicants for political asylum from reaching the United States. In April, for instance, a boatload of Chinese bound for the United States was intercepted by the Coast Guard 200 miles off Honduras. The boat, registered in Honduras, was allowed to land in Honduras, and two lawyers from the Immigration and Naturalization Service flew there to interview the Chinese. The lawyers determined that five of them were political refugees, a former Government official deeply involved in immigration matters said, and that about 40 others had claims worth pursing. But United Nations officials in Geneva, who had final say in the matter, determined that none of the Chinese qualified as political refugees, and Honduras returned them to China at American expense. Crucial Court Ruling Immigration experts expect that the United States will continue to seek other countries' cooperation in helping to process and repatriate illegal aliens bound for the United States. Indeed, a new Administration policy calls for the interdiction and "redirection" of boats smuggling aliens. The Supreme Court ruled recently that Federal and international laws prohibiting the summary return of aliens do not apply to those stopped in international waters or outside the United States. And immigration experts believe that ruling has emboldened the Administration. Some human-rights advocates are concerned that the Government is pushing the limits of its powers in seizing and redirecting foreign vessels. The United States, through a treaty with the Haitian Government, has permission to interdict only Haitian boats. In the latest case, a State Department official, Joseph Snyder, said one boat captain gave the Coast Guard permission to take control. Because the other boats were believed to be registered in Taiwan, the Government asked the Taiwan Government for permission to board them. Taiwan officials said they could not confirm that the boats were indeed were sailing under a Taiwanese flag "but that they had no problems with the Coast Guard boarding and inspecting them," Mr. Snyder said. Lucas Guttentag, an immigration expert at the American Civil Liberties Union, questioned the Government's actions of the past week. "Is the U.S. Government obfuscating or blatantly violating the international law of the seas?" he asked. "This would seem to come perilously close to piracy." |
624577_3 | Rain Forests Seen as Shaped by Human Hand | found corn pollen along with charcoal signatures in mud 300 to 6,000 years old. The researchers have found the evidence in the Darien Gap, as well as other forests in Panama, and along the Amazon River. "In the Darien Gap forest we thought we'd see a long history of no change," Dr. Bush said. "The forests look wonderful, bigger trees than you see here in La Selva, capybara everywhere, king vultures everywhere. It just looked really pristine. But sure enough 4,000 years ago there was maize cultivation." He added that the area was cultivated until "just 300 some years ago." Moreover, said Dr. Sanford, an ecologist at the University of Denver whose work has been funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the story appears to be the same all over the world. "Almost everywhere we go in Latin America, and Asia and Africa, we find charcoal buried in the soil. People have in one way or another cut and burned almost every place in the tropics." Alerted to the possibility of human influences on La Selva, Dr. Deborah Clark and Dr. David Clark have looked for and recently found evidence in the oldest of La Selva's woods that humans have altered the landscape by harvesting for the dinner table. More a Garden Than a Wilderness A favorite Costa Rican food is the heart of palm, particularly delicious when taken from the Iriartea palm tree. To harvest the heart, which is the growing tip, the entire tree must be sacrificed. The Clarks and their colleagues surveyed the distribution of seven palm species, of which Iriartea is the favored food source, in the most ancient woods on what is now the La Selva preserve. They found that only Iriartea had a peculiar distribution that could not easily be explained by ecological factors, such as soil type or topography. Instead, they found that throughout the "virgin" forest, those areas most easily accessible to humans had been essentially cleared of Iriartea, while it persisted in more inaccessible areas, making La Selva seem much less a wilderness and much more a garden than anyone would previously have ventured to guess. Studies like those of the Iriartea palm, which the Clarks will present at the meeting in Madison, are still few and far between and researchers acknowledge that the extent to which human disturbance has molded forests like La Selva remains unknown. But researchers say |
619818_3 | Lawyer Says Sheik Plans Fight Against Extradition | act after Robert H. Pelletreau, the United States Ambassador in Cairo, told them that under American law Mr. Abdel Rahman could abandon his fight against deportation and simply depart for any third country that would accept him. According to senior Administration officials, Mr. Pelletreau said Mr. Abdel Rahman could even seek refuge in the Sudan, which Egypt has accused of harboring anti-Egyptian terrorists. 'Gave Us No Choice' Egyptian officials said they regarded the Ambassador's remarks as a form of pressure. "The Americans gave us no choice," said one senior Egyptian official. "It was not something we had planned to do. But the Americans made it clear to us that they could not keep him. So we had no option." But both of Mr. Abdel Rahman's lawyers in New York said that as far as they knew, their client had never considered moving to the Sudan or any other country besides the United States. "He's a person who believes in principles," Mr. Warren said. "He believes he is being treated unjustly, and he is going to fight it." Last March an immigration judge ordered Mr. Abdel Rahman deported on immigration violations, including charges of false statements on his application for a visa at the United States Embassy in the Sudan, and denied a request for political asylum. His appeal is being considered by the Board of Immigration Appeals in Washington. Should the board agree that Mr. Abdel Rahman should be deported, immigration officials said, he may challenge the decision in the Federal courts. Clinton Administration officials said a formal request for extradition would cancel the possibility of Mr. Abdel Rahman forsaking his deportation battle and leaving the country. Such a request is usually accompanied by an arrest warrant from the foreign country. But Mr. Abdel Rahman had already been detained because Attorney General Janet Reno said she believed he was a danger to the community. On Separate Tracks Abraham D. Sofaer, who served as the State Department's senior lawyer during the Bush Administration, said the deportation case and the request for extradition would proceed on separate tracks. Ultimately, he said, the extradition case would take precedence over the deportation. "Let's say you're found not deportable, you would still be processed for extradition," Mr. Sofaer said. "Once you're found extraditable, the deportation proceeding is mooted." Some appeals on extradition, he said, have gone as high as the United States Supreme Court. "Extradition |
619827_1 | Like Ahab, a Venturer Pursues Destiny at Sea | Indian casino 10 miles north of here. But the greater trial will come with the first six-hour cruise, which will likely feature as many lawyers in dark suits as tourists in floral shirts and Bermudas. If Mr. Graver is not fully in international waters when the casino opens, state officials will pounce. After that Federal prosecutors will take their squint: if they determine that the Europa Jet is "principally a gambling vessel" and not, as Mr. Graver's lawyers say, principally a full-service pleasure craft with dancing, dining and stargazing and only incidentally gambling, they will bust him for that. "Anxious is an understatement," Mr. Graver said. There has been much positive news in this corner of the state even as Mr. Graver has struggled and watched his legal bills mount. The sprawling United States Navy submarine base across the Thames River in Groton was spared in the recent round of military base closings, and will in fact expand as new training missions are transferred here. Support is also apparently growing in Washington to commission another $2 billion Seawolf submarine that would keep the Electric Boat shipyard, which Mr. Graver can also see from his office window, staffed and running until the next generation of Navy submarines is built toward the turn of the century. Up the road in Ledyard, the Mashantucket Pequots, who opened their casino using Federal laws last year, are expanding more ambitiously than ever. Tribal leaders, just back from a trip to China, announced plans last week for an Asian theme park, with participation by the Chinese Government, that would include a replica of the Forbidden City. A third full casino is also in planning, even though the second one isn't finished yet. Mr. Graver's dreams, in that light, appear only a bit less fanciful. In the old days, when New London launched fleets of whalers -- and in more recent times, fleets of submarines -- the work was tangible and material, if backbreaking. Now things are more complex, and subject to endless interpretation by flotillas of lawyers. But watching Mr. Graver bound around the dock in his sockless Topsiders and endless optimism, it is easy to imagine a whaling-era businessman of much the same mold: eyes to the sea, looking for the big score. Perhaps in the end, a dream is a dream and a frontier is where you find it. The Pequot gambling enterprise, being |
618832_0 | Environment Deserves Higher Albany Priority | To the Editor: Re "Goodbye, Adirondacks?" by John B. Oakes (Op-Ed, June 24): To suggest that the Republican Environmental Trust Fund proposal will somehow undo protections for our 100-year-old forest preserve -- which are guaranteed by the State Constitution -- is ludicrous. Our plan is the only one that includes specific funds to acquire what experts have identified as the highest-priority, environmentally sensitive, privately held parcels in the Adirondack Park: the historic Follensby Pond wilderness and the former Morgan estate on the Lake George shoreline. Not the Governor's bill. Not the Assembly plan. The State Senate Environmental Trust Fund plan also provides for buying other priority parcels from Montauk to the Niagara Frontier, like the Long Island Pine Barrens, identified in the state's open space plan as facing development pressure. It addresses other vital environmental needs, including programs that put a crushing burden on local government finances, like landfill closure and programs to promote recycling. An effective Environmental Trust Fund has been one of my top priorities since voters rejected the 1990 Environmental Bond Act, which I supported and for which I campaigned that summer and fall. The very serious obstacle we face has nothing to do with land acquisition or preservation of the Adirondacks, but with the Governor's insistence that the only way to finance environmental programs is through nearly $200 million in new taxes on items like soda and tires -- despite our having enacted taxes that were supposed to be used for environmental purposes. In essence, the Governor has put the environment in last place among his priorities. Environment and public health must have a high priority claim on the state's financial resources, along with such areas as education and public safety. RALPH J. MARINO State Senate Majority Leader Albany, June 25, 1993 |
618773_1 | Books of The Times; Seeing Prozac as a Success Story With 'Buts' | Sam; he had lost his interest in pornography. This raised a puzzling question in Dr. Kramer's mind: had Prozac removed a biological tic in Sam's makeup, or had it altered Sam's very personality? What follows in "Listening to Prozac: A Psychiatrist Explores Antidepressant Drugs and the Remaking of the Self" is a complex investigation of the deeper issues raised by Sam's experience: What is the nature of human character? What accounts for disturbances of that character? Is human personality shaped by nature or nurture? And what are the ethics of altering personality? This exploration leads the author into a history of the outlook on mental illness since Freud discovered the unconscious; into the fields of cellular biology, animal ethology and medical ethics, and into recent discoveries about the neurophysiology of behavior. As Dr. Kramer explains, one of the more remarkable aspects of Prozac is that as well as alleviating depression, it has cleared up an entire spectrum of debilitating symptoms like compulsiveness and sensitivity to loss and rejection. Could such problems be hitherto unrecognized aspects of depression? Or were Prozac and other antidepressants suggesting a whole new map of the human mind, not to mention the possibility of a physiological basis for temperament? This is what Dr. Kramer means by his title, "Listening to Prozac." Prozac is telling us new things about the chemistry of human character. It is also telling us that we may be able to alter people pharmacologically. This of course raises profound moral and philosophical considerations, the most obvious of which concern whether it is right to brighten people's moods artificially; whether to narrow the scope of feelings isn't to rob people of their humanity and their capacity to grow through suffering, and whether a population subjected to "cosmetic psychopharmacology" mightn't be at risk of totalitarian mind control. Dr. Kramer explores these issues at length, paying special attention to the nightmare vision of a drugged population that the Southern writer Walker Percy described in his final novel, "The Thanatos Syndrome." But he ends up rebutting the various objections and endorsing the potential of Prozac, arguing that the drug doesn't so much brighten moods as allow people to engage their feelings. A nonconformist who was taking Prozac would be better equipped to rebel against the state than someone paralyzed by depression, he reasons. Prozac may even imply a solution to opiate and amphetamine addiction, Dr. Kramer suggests. |
622748_2 | Workers of the World, Get Smart | without high school diplomas suffered a drop in earnings of 14 percent. Today, the weekly earnings of full-time workers over 25 who are college graduates are more than 50 percent above the earnings of otherwise similar workers who are simply high school graduates. The pattern of unemployment provides a second clue. In Europe and the U.S., the uneducated and unskilled have been hardest hit. While college graduates did not escape the prolonged recession in the U.S., only 3.2 percent were unemployed last year compared with 11.4 percent of those who dropped out of high school. The long-term crisis in advanced industrial nations reflects in part a shift in relative labor demand against less-educated workers and those doing routine tasks and toward workers with problem-solving skills. So, how do we move a workforce suited to one sort of economy quickly and smoothly into a world grown suddenly quite different? No country has yet found the formula. But different countries have illustrated different ways to get it wrong. The continental European approach has been to have Government intervene heavily in the wage-setting process and seek to preserve the existing pattern of employment. This has prevented the gap between high-wage and low-wage workers from widening much, but it has not directly addressed the profound changes in the demand for skills. Such policies have maintained wages and job security for the employed, but they have retarded the creation of new jobs. In the U.S. and Britain, employers have responded more directly to changes in labor force supply and demand. The result has been greater inequality in wages and working conditions. The apparent payoff from this Faustian bargain is a rate of U.S. job growth over the last two decades that has been the envy of Europe. Nevertheless, job growth in the U.S. and Britain has been punctuated by high unemployment in recessions and tarnished by worsening problems of permanent loss of jobs. A third blind alley is protection from exports. No advanced nation is blameless. Yet escaping from global markets through protectionism is no solution. New technologies will reduce the demand for less-skilled workers even if borders are sealed. And many of the high-wage jobs of the future will be tied to exports and jobs that service the export industry. Protectionism cripples economic progress while failing to save jobs. Americans have traditionally cast their lot with open trade. In recent years, we have wavered. |
621108_1 | Protestants Set to March in an Uneasy Belfast | were several incidents of minor violence between Catholics and Protestants, and the police defused at least two bombs planted in Belfast. Today, police and army leaves were canceled and soldiers in armored cars combed the streets of Belfast and other towns in unusual numbers, looking under cars for bombs and questioning drivers of cars passing checkpoints between Catholic and Protestant areas, especially those heading to the city center. The peace talks sponsored by the British Government seem to have collapsed beyond hope of resumption this year. Officials of Britain and Ireland are squabbling about what to do next. "Anarchy" was the word used by Cecil Walker, an Ulster Unionist Member of the British Parliament, to describe three nights of clashes this month between Protestant paramilitaries and the Protestant-dominated police force. As those clashes subsided, the Irish Republican Army detonated a huge bomb in Newtownards, a town nine miles east of Belfast, that devastated its center, wounded 14 people and severely damaged 30 businesses and 87 homes. And the I.R.A. newspaper, Republican News, published a letter that it said the group had sent to foreign banks in London, warning that it would continue to bomb the financial district. The Newtownards attack prompted another Protestant leader, a Unionist Member of Parliament, John Taylor, to say, "I have to say something which I thought I would never have to say, and that is that the I.R.A. are certainly winning in Northern Ireland." The chief British official for the province, Sir Patrick Mayhew, the Northern Ireland Secretary, took strong exception to the remark. Sir Patrick also found himself at odds with the Irish Foreign Minister, Dick Spring. In an interview with The Guardian, Mr. Spring added to the growing sense of alarm among politicians by saying: "The path leading to the resumption of talks between the political parties in Northern Ireland is narrowing and may be about to disappear. There is now a very real menace of a destabilizing vacuum. If it not possible to restart the talks, the British and Irish Governments must act." He said the Governments should consider a new agreement, reached over the heads of the province's squabbling politicians if necessary, under which London and Dublin would have joint authority over the province. Such a proposition should go before voters in the North and in the Irish Republic to the south, Mr. Spring added. Proposal for U.S. Envoy Sir Patrick |
621068_0 | World Economies | |
622165_5 | LONG ISLAND JOURNAL | according to Chet Wilcox, owner of B & B Tackle in Center Moriches. "There's a lot of acrobatic fighting," Mr. Wilcox said. "It's something to see." Joe Schieferstein was trying to see it at the same time that his passengers were trying to hook on him a stand-up harness. "He just had the rod in his hands," John said. "It was a 50-pound Penn International, a great rod and reel. It cost him about $700." As Joe was trying to hold onto the fish and hook himself up, the fish jumped about 300 feet away. "A few seconds later he jumped again," John said. "He had cut the distance by half." DA-DUM, DA-DUM. The fish wasn't trying to get away. It was heading for the boat. "Yeah, it looked like he was deliberately coming at us," John said. But sharks only do that in movies, right? Two passengers had never been shark fishing before. "The novices saw the fish coming," Mr. Wilcox recalled, "and thought, 'Shark attack!' " So they did what any angler would do. They ran for cover. A wise decision, because five seconds later the fish made its third jump, into the boat and on top of its captor, Joe Schieferstein. "He knocked my brother out," John said. "He also broke the outboard cover and the rod holders and the leaning post. He really messed up the boat. And he had Joe pinned." Fortunately, John Schieferstein added, the shark hit the post at such an angle that it was able to flip itself out of the boat. "But he took the rod and reel with him," Mr. Schieferstein said. Joe had abrasions on his chest -- and his pride -- but was well enough to captain his crew back to Mr. Wilcox's shop, where they arrived with no fish, rod or reel. Ah, but what a fish tale they told. "Joe tried first telling it on the radio," John said. "But the guy who answered said, 'Snap out of it captain.' " The insurance company has not been contacted yet. What exactly do you say, John Schieferstein asked. But Mr. Wilcox believes them. "These are experienced fishermen," he said. "If they say that's what happened, then that's what happened." As for the fish, no one has seen it since. "But there's one shark out there," Mr. Wilcox said, "whose got a rod and reel on the mantle." |
622272_0 | Deep-Sea Scavenging Gets Easier | SPITTOONS. Fine china. Three ship's whistles, each weighing 800 pounds. Last month a salvage ship sailed into Norfolk, Va., heavy with hundreds of artifacts -- the first booty from the sunken luxury liner Titanic to reach American soil. But whether the recovery of treasure from shipwrecks is a high-minded effort at preserving history or nothing more than modern piracy, it has turned into a rush to pick through the hulks that clutter the ocean floor. The northeastern seaboard of the United States alone has some 10,000 major shipwrecks, only a tenth of which have been examined. Worldwide, millions of ships have been lost over the centuries, some loaded with silver and gold. Behind the rush are advances in technology that are easing recoveries in coastal waters and opening the oceanic deep to exploitation for the first time. Treasure hunters have long scavenged wrecks in shallow waters, where divers go down 150 feet or more. But unmanned sensors and robots, as well as manned mini-submarines, are expanding the search area. The Titanic, for instance, lies in icy Atlantic waters nearly 2.5 miles deep. "We are approaching an era when we will be able to explore virtually any shipwreck regardless of depth," John P. Fish said in "Unfinished Voyages," a book about wrecks off the Northeast coast of the United States. The conflict comes because some experts consider these twisted masses of old metal and wood to be a cultural legacy of the human race, sort of a vast undersea museum with millions of patrons and virtually no visitors -- until now. In August, Dr. Robert D. Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic, is to wire up the sunken Lusitania with robot cameras that will rove inside the hunk and relay images by cable to museums on land. "Technology has thrown open the pyramids of the deep for appreciation or plunder," said Dr. Ballard, who in 1989 found the German battleship Bismarck and now prowls the globe for famous shipwrecks, mostly photographing them for education, entertainment and science. "Going down to the Arizona at Pearl Harbor and recovering belt buckles is not the way to go," Dr. Ballard said; the drama of a shipwreck "is in the juxtaposition of everything." In contrast, salvors often pick apart wrecks for the most valuable items. RMS Titanic Inc., the New York company that is salvaging the Titanic, says its latest expedition succeeded in scooping up some |
622396_0 | IN SHORT: NONFICTION | CLASSICAL STUDIES A SOCIAL HISTORY OF GREECE AND ROME By Michael Grant. Scribners, $20. Michael Grant is one of the English-speaking world's best-known popularizers of classical studies. Like numerous earlier volumes by the author, "A Social History of Greece and Rome" is aimed at general readers and does not pretend to stake out new intellectual territory. At its best, the book provides a trustworthy outline of the basic material by a competent scholar; Mr. Grant is a former fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and a professor of humanity at Edinburgh University. But one perhaps inevitable result of his attempt to cover a thousand years of history in so little space is breathtaking superficiality. The sections on slavery are the most successful and thought-provoking, if only because they deal with an aspect of classical civilization -- particularly in Greece -- that most often gets tucked away behind marble statues and democratic institutions. Slaves made up about one-third of the total population of the classical world at various times, and some Greek states held entire populations in a status approximating serfdom. But even with this potentially fascinating material, the book feels perfunctory and bloodless. Mr. Grant's greatest enthusiasm is reserved for an appendix that criticizes Marxist views of ancient social history. The author's subject matter has been of much concern to classicists over the last several years, and readers whose appetite may be stirred by "A Social History of Greece and Rome" would do well to consult the book's bibliography -- many of the recent works it lists are penetrating as well as accessible. |
622233_0 | Measuring the Threat of Power Lines | THE looming presence of transmission power lines near a handful of Westchester schools has been an unremarkable fact of life for students and their parents for decades. At worst, they were considered unattractive reminders of the realities of modern life in the suburbs. But in more recent years, those same lines, many installed more than 20 years ago, are being viewed with suspicion and fear that the electromagnetic fields emanating from the lines may pose a threat to children's health. As a result, State Attorney General Robert Abrams has asked all eight utilities in the state to conduct a survey of schools near their lines and estimate the electromagnetic fields being generated. Some other states, including New Jersey, have begun conducting similar surveys. "A series of studies has indicated that exposure to electromagnetic fields is related to childhood cancers," Mr. Abrams said. "With the surveys, we hope to begin to start gathering information on this issue and try to make judgments about what, if anything, to do about it." Lack of Conclusive Evidence The uncertainty about what to do with the information stems from the lack of any conclusive scientific evidence that electromagnetic fields pose any risks to children's health. The best evidence of a link between transmission lines and children's leukemia was established by a study conducted in Sweden last September. It found that children living near power lines had four times the rate of leukemia of other children and that adults had one-and-a-half to three times the chance of developing cancer. That study, as well as several others on the subject, has been disputed by experts, some of whom maintain, for example, that the sample of children used in the Swedish study was too small. To date, there has been no conclusive evidence and there has been no study in this country that has been widely accepted and which could lead the Federal Government or individual states to establish safe-exposure levels for electromagnetic fields. The strength of a field is measured in a unit called milligauss. After the results of the Swedish study were made public, the Government there started discussing the establishment of a national standard of 2 milligauss as a safe level of exposure, but that may prove prohibitively expensive to implement. For now, schools in the county are left to look at their numbers and wonder what they mean. According to Con Edison's survey, which |
622399_0 | Helping Disturbed Children | To the Editor: Having interned for a year at a not-for-profit child guidance agency where disturbed children are treated, I must take issue with Louise Armstrong and her book "And They Call It Help" (June 20). At my agency -- and I believe it is representative of those throughout the country -- children were assessed with enormous care and caution. At no time during my tenure was a child treated simply because he was a nuisance to his parents or teachers, as Ms. Armstrong states. To suggest that mental health workers, who typically have two to six years of graduate education, are unaware of the pitfalls of diagnostic labeling, or the economic etiology of many of our clients' problems, is ludicrous and insulting. Child therapy modalities include play therapy, where the therapist and the child play with toys, or play board games; drawing; manipulating Play-Doh, and storytelling, perhaps aided by hand puppets. None of these techniques could be considered cruel or repressive. Children seem to benefit from them, and look forward to their next session. JONATHAN FAST Fairfield, Conn. |
622313_0 | Latin Leaders Ask End of Embargo on Cuba | In a rare display of consensus on Cuba, leaders of Latin America, Spain and Portugal called today for an end to the 31-year-old United States trade embargo against Havana. "We take note of recent resolutions and international forums of the need to eliminate unilateral application, by any state, for political ends, of measures of an economic and trade nature against another state," said a resolution approved by the leaders of 21 countries. Although the words "Cuba" and the "United States" were not in the final text, the meaning was clear to friends and foes of Cuba here at the third annual Ibero-American conference. "This coincides with 100 percent of our aspirations," said Ramon Sanchez Parodi, Cuba's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Support for the measure even came from President Carlos Saul Menem of Argentina, who on Thursday called Cuba "the lamentable dictatorship." There had been no agreement on the embargo at the first two Ibero-American meetings. But since last year's meeting, Congress passed the Cuban Democracy Act, which bars off-shore subsidiaries of American multinational companies from doing business with Cuba and closes United States ports to ships that dock in Cuba. |
622282_1 | The Ph.D.'s Are Here, But the Lab Isn't Hiring | an increase of two-fifths. Among natural scientists like chemists, physicists and biologists, unemployment was low -- 2.3 percent last year. The 2.3 percent figure obscures tensions or changes among individual disciplines; demands for environmentalists, who are also in the category, are strong and likely to get stronger. Even so, that rate represents a two-thirds increase in the numbers of unemployed natural scientists over the three years, from 15,000 to 25,000. Overall unemployment among engineers jumped even more -- 159 percent, or from 27,000 to 70,000 and to a jobless rate of 3.8 percent. Chemical engineers were hit hardest. The job drought is also affecting undergraduates looking for jobs in the sciences. Among the 402 colleges and universities monitored by the College Placement Council in Bethlehem, Pa., offers to graduating seniors remain well below their pre-recession peaks, as have those from industries that hire the most science and engineering majors. The council declines to disclose numbers of offers, but says those from the aerospace industry have plunged from 7.4 percent of the offers students received five years ago to 1.4 percent in 1993. Offers by oil companies fell from 9.4 percent to 2.1 percent and by drug companies from 5.2 percent to 3.9 percent. At Princeton, David Redman, acting dean of the graduate school, said 13 percent of this university's 250 new Ph.D.'s this year were unemployed as of early July, compared with 5 percent a year earlier. Of the new scientists who find university jobs, Dr. Redman said 15 or 20 percent settle for limbo-like post-doctoral fellowships that come without health benefits or the prospect of tenure and that terminate in two to six years. A reason for the scarcity of jobs in science and engineering is the same that effects everyone: an economy that has been slow to restore jobs that were lost in the recession. But science and engineering, like many industries, has also been struck by something else. The scientific establishment -- aerospace and defense companies and big research universities -- which provided jobs to new graduates is shrinking and appears unlikely to revive anytime soon. Across the establishment, in the laboratories of Government, industry and some universities, hiring has stalled. In the new tight-fisted corporate economy, industrial companies like A.T.& T., I.B.M. and Westinghouse have shut or shrunk laboratories that once recruited legions of researchers. Geopolitics is also a major factor. Peace with the Russians has |
622253_1 | Q and A | 20 partial transits of the canal are made each year. The cost, which includes the services of a bilingual guide and canal pamphlets, is $40 a person, $20 for children 12 and under. Snacks are available on board. A full transit of the canal, lasting usually 8 to 9 hours, up to 12 hours if traffic is heavy, is held when the boats sail from Balboa to Cristobal, on the Atlantic Ocean side, for their annual maintenance. Passengers are taken back to Balboa, a distance of some 45 miles, aboard an air-conditioned bus. This year the Fantasia del Mar will leave Balboa on Aug. 8. The second full transit, aboard the Islamorada, has not yet been scheduled, but Argo says it will be sometime toward the end of August, after the Fantasia has completed its time in drydock. The full-transit trips cost $50, $35 for children. Both boats are available for charters through the canal and for cruises around Panama Bay. When the ships are not plying the canal they are used for trips to the island of Taboga in Panama Bay. The Islamorada is in service to the island Monday to Friday and the Fantasia on Saturday, Sunday and holidays. The island, which offers walks through sometimes lush vegetation, has two hotels, the Hotel Chu and the modernized Taboga Hotel, which has an outdoor swimming pool. The fare is $3 each way, children $1.50. More information: Argo Tours, Apartado 9662, Panama 4, Republic of Panama; telephone 011 (507) 28-6069, fax 011 (507) 28-1234. Medical Care in China Q. We would like to visit some of the smaller cities in China and are wondering how good the medical facilities are, especially as we would be traveling with younger children. -- Paul Schwartz, New York, N.Y. A. Hospitals in small Chinese cities are described as adequate by Nicholas D. Kristof, head of the Beijing bureau of The Times since 1988, who says the staff would tend to be extremely friendly and helpful to foreigners. But the doctors would not normally speak much English, he says, and conditions would not be nearly as good as those to be found in the United States or Hong Kong. While taking X-rays, for instance, doctors in the smaller cities often do not use a lead shield to protect the patient. And because Chinese doctors regard foreign patients as particularly exotic, they might prescribe a particularly |
622456_0 | POSTINGS: After a Collapse; Site Monitored For Vibrations | Much remains of the Federal-style town house at 149 Mulberry Street that was built for Stephen Van Rensselaer in 1816. Its gambrel roof is still there. So are the pediment-topped dormer windows. So, too, was the chimney -- until 10 days ago when it collapsed in a cloud of dust onto the roof of an adjoining building. No one was injured and Paolucci's restaurant, on the first floor, was unaffected. Still, city officials are concerned because the landmark house, near Grand Street, is 177 years old and built on a wood frame. And the School Construction Authority has begun excavations on a site behind the house, along Baxter Street, where it will construct a five-story addition to Public School 130. The tenant who lives above the restaurant, George Camarda, said vibrations from the job site were enough to make his dishes rattle. However, Jose Cintron, a vice president of the authority, said: "As far as we can determine, we are not the cause of the chimney collapse. But we are concerned about the condition of the buildings around there. We're going to establish vibration monitors around our site to insure that we're operating within acceptable levels and not endangering any properties." |
621819_0 | RUSSIA MAY CURB FOREIGN RELIGIONS | At the urging of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Parliament passed a measure on Wednesday restricting the activities of foreign religious groups here. The measure was apparently aimed at controlling the activities of foreign evangelical preachers and of sects like the Hare Krishna. They regularly hold mass meetings in stadiums or appear on television, to the growing irritation and consternation of the established Orthodox Church. But the renewed checks on hard-won religious freedoms, and especially the provision that foreign organizations would be assessed on the basis of "the interests of the state and social concord," drew immediate fire from human-rights advocates. These included the Rev. Gleb Yakunin, a former dissident and himself a Russian Orthodox priest who has often been at odds with the established church. "The amendment is a new discriminatory law, aimed at creating favorable conditions for the Moscow Patriarchate," Father Yakunin said, referring to the Russian Church, "which is using its lobby in the Supreme Soviet to muzzle all competing organizations in its preaching activities." Accreditation Needed The measure, an amendment to the law on religious freedom adopted in October 1990, would require all foreign religious groups to obtain state accreditation or to be affiliated with a Russian religious organization before they could undertake any missionary work, publishing, business deals or advertising in Russia, according to press reports. The state is allowed to consider an application for up to a year. The text of the amendment has yet to be published, and it is not clear how it would be enforced. It also needs President Boris N. Yeltsin's signature to become law, and that is not guaranteed. But the idea that the church, after 70 years of repression, was asking for renewed state controls, troubled many. Aleksandr Nezhnyi, a journalist writing in Izvestia, invoked the Communist "agitprop" heritage of the measure. "Instead of bringing to a minimum the state's interference into religious life, it opens the doors wide to the arbitrariness of bureaucrats," he said. The amendment was introduced by the Parliamentary Committee on Freedom of Conscience, whose chairman, Vyacheslav Polosin, is an Orthodox priest. Father Polosin asserted that the issue was not church and state, but rather "state ideology," and whether foreign organizations should be allowed to recruit Russian citizens. Guarded Response by Graham The initial response from Western churchmen was guarded. A spokesman for Billy Graham, the evangelist who made several visits to the |
621817_1 | Cuba's Ills Encroach On Health | And in this sense, Santiago de las Vegas may also be typical of the system. The Government has spared no expense on Cuba's 936 AIDS patients, giving them individual housing here and at other centers that is among the best to be found in the country. The sick at Santiago de las Vegas also receive a minimum of 4,500 calories daily, nearly twice what a normal diet would provide, and are treated with expensive medicines including imported AZT and acyclovir as well as interferon, which is produced in Cuban laboratories. Foreign currency shortages linked to the cutoff of Soviet-bloc aid and a tightened American embargo have prevented the Cuban Government from continuing wide distribution of free condoms, which had been the centerpiece of a campaign to blunt the spread of AIDS. Although medicines, gloves, disposable syringes and detergents are available in abundance at the AIDS center, they are in short supply at health centers elsewhere. New Ailment a Mystery The island's economic problems have been underscored by a mysterious ailment of the eye and nervous system among more than 43,000 people in little over a year. Foreign specialists say the most likely causes for the disease are nutritional gaps in the diets of ordinary Cubans or the use of toxic food substitutes -- both the result of food shortages and of rationing. Health specialists say the scarcity of certain products may also have contributed to a modest increase in the incidence of low birth weight among Cuban infants -- to 8.1 percent of all live births in 1992, from 7.6 percent in 1991, according to Unesco figures. A similar rise is suspected in the infant mortality rate, specialists say, although data were unavailable. Infant mortality and birth weight are areas in which, after generations of poverty and stark inequality, this country of 11 million people had achieved standards rivaling those of most industrialized countries. "How fast the system is crashing is hard to say, because their health system was so good, and had accumulated so much good will capital from other countries and international agencies," Julie Feinsilver, a specialist on Cuban health from Oberlin College, said during a recent visit. "The question now is how long they can keep it up." Impossible Burden Others say that by trying to juggle the demands of a high-tech medical establishment and a comprehensive health-care system, Cuba is carrying an impossible burden at a |
621835_0 | C.I.A. FIGHTS PLAN TO CUT ITS BUDGET | The Director of Central Intelligence is lobbying aggressively to prevent Congress from freezing the nation's secret intelligence budget at about $28 billion, Government and intelligence officials said today. The Director, R. James Woolsey, spent the day buttonholing and telephoning members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, arguing that not a penny should be cut from what he considered a bare-bones budget request. A showdown will come Friday, when the committee considers cutting more than $1 billion from President Clinton's request of slightly more than $29 billion for the Central Intelligence Agency and military intelligence. A freeze might be regarded as a small triumph for the intelligence agencies in the post-cold-war climate. But Mr. Woolsey sees a freeze as a costly victory at best. Spy Satellite Consolidation The cuts have been approved by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and deepened by the Senate panel. Most would come from consolidating the functions of multibillion-dollar spy satellite programs, the officials said. The satellites will cost more than $2 billion each by the time they are launched later in the decade. Global coverage requires three such satellites, with a fourth held in reserve. Mr. Woolsey argues that spending more money now on the spy satellites will save money in years to come, when funds for espionage will be even tighter, intelligence officials said. The consolidation of the satellite programs follows a shake-up at the National Reconnaissance Office, an agency so secret that its name and letterhead were classified until last October. The office, which develops the nation's spy satellites, was accused by other agencies in the intelligence community of profligacy and inefficiency. As a consequence, responsibility for satellite programs was reorganized last year. Signals-intelligence satellites are now being managed by the Air Force; photo-reconnaissance satellites, which take video and still pictures from space, are managed by the C.I.A., and ocean-monitoring satellites are managed by the Navy. The C.I.A. spends little more than 10 percent of the intelligence budget. Military intelligence agencies like the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Security Agency, which conducts electronic eavesdropping, spend about 85 percent of the budget. The rest is spent by small intelligence bureaus in the Departments of State, Justice, Energy and the Treasury. |
623552_0 | Philippines Acts to Protect Environment | To the Editor: Your July 13 Hinunangan Journal inaccurately presents images of the Philippines as a metaphor for the national situation. In the last seven years poverty in the Philippines has fallen from 65 percent to 40 percent. Government programs, supported by the private sector, aim at reducing it to 30 percent toward the end of the decade. The Government of the Philippines has moved aggressively to address environmental degradation. Reforms include the banning of logging in old-growth forests; establishment of forestry programs where communities take the lead in managing resources, and massive outlays for environmental protection, despite limited finances. Manila has worked out innovative debt-for-nature swaps with multilateral institutions to support such programs. With a stabilized political climate, economic reforms have occurred at a dramatic pace. Structural changes have resulted in the resumption of economic growth, improved foreign debt ratios, a sixfold increase in international reserves and the reduction of inflation from 18.5 percent in 1991 to a manageable 6.7 percent this year. These have a direct impact on the purchasing power and well-being of the man and woman in the street and contribute to an improved employment picture as well. The World Bank declared last April that "the Philippines now faces its best prospect for sustained development in almost two decades." Citicorp in its emerging markets research echoes the sentiment. One manifestation: the Manila stock market has been named one of the best performing in the world, posting 110 percent returns. RAUL CH. RABE Ambassador of the Philippines Washington, July 14, 1993 |
623595_0 | U.S. Eases Rules Governing Telephone Links With Cuba | In what could be the most significant easing of the economic embargo of Cuba in years, the Clinton Administration has decided to permit American telephone companies to expand communications links to Havana and share some of their revenues with the Castro Government, officials said today. The move is a response to a surge in calls through Canadian-based companies that relay telephone calls from the United States to Cuba, evading the embargo and charging higher rates than American companies. The regulations would allow carriers in the United States like A.T.&T., MCI and Sprint to share the proceeds from telephone charges to and from Cuba with Fidel Castro's Government. State Department officials have begun briefing members of Congress about the proposal and will soon inform prominent Cuban-American leaders and officials of American companies. Opposed by Cuban-Americans The proposal, which could net the Castro Government about $50 million to $60 million a year, is expected to generate significant opposition among Cuban-Americans. A.T.&T. maintains limited telecommunication service to Cuba, but because of the trade embargo the company cannot split the revenues derived from that service with Cuba's state-owned telephone company. Instead, Cuba's share of the proceeds are placed in an escrow account that totals more than $80 million. While American companies will be able to share revenues from the calls with Cuba, officials said the money in the escrow account will continue to be frozen. As a result, United States officials are not sure whether its proposal will be acceptable to Cuba. A spokesman at the Cuban diplomatic mission here, Jose Luis Ponce, said that the escrow provision could pose a major stumbling block, The Associated Press reported. Cuba's position is that the funds in the frozen account should be turned over in order to reach an agreement, Mr. Ponce said. He added that Cuban authorities will study the United States proposal carefully. Officials said today that it had yet to be determined how many circuits the Administration will allow American telephone carriers to establish with Cuba. It is estimated that for every 100 circuits that American companies set up, Cuba will garner about $15 million in the first year of operation. At the same time it has decided to expand telephone service to Cuba, the Administration has sent letters to A.T.&T., MCI and Sprint seeking information about seven Canadian-based companies that provide telephone service to Cuba via toll-free 800 numbers. Callers to the |
623538_2 | Natural Limits | protein, demands are also straining the limits on every continent. From 1950 to 1990, world production of beef, most of it from grasslands, went from 19 million to 53 million tons. But since 1990, production has dropped more than 2 percent. Mutton, the other grass-based meat, has followed a similar trend. Marine biologists and rangeland agronomists had warned that these natural systems were being pushed ever closer to their limits. The slowing growth in grain output was somewhat less predictable, but growth in the area planted in grain came to a halt in 1981. Two other trends are partly responsible. First, the growth of irrigated areas, after more than doubling between 1950 and 1978, fell behind population growth. Since 1978, the irrigated area per person has shrunk by 7 percent. Second, the growth of fertilizer use, the engine that drove the growth in food output, is slowing. Fertilizer use increased ninefold from 1950 to 1984, but since then has increased little. In agriculturally advanced countries, applying more fertilizer now does little to raise output. As growth in fertilizer use has slowed, so has growth in the world grain harvest. More disturbing, there is no new technology in prospect that will enable farmers to restore the 3 percent annual growth in grain production that prevailed from 1950 to 1984. This is a matter of deepening concern. Last year, the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London issued a report that warned: "If current predictions of population growth prove accurate and patterns of human activity on the planet remain unchanged, science and technology may not be able to prevent either irreversible degradation of the environment or continued poverty for much of the world." The world has quietly entered a new era, one in which satisfying the food needs of 90 million more people each year is possible only by reducing consumption among those already here. The only sensible option may now be an all-out effort to slow population growth. The first step is to fill the family-planning gap by expanding services. But unless the world can go beyond that and attack the conditions that foster rapid population growth -- namely, discrimination against women and widespread poverty -- reversing the decline may not be possible. Lester R. Brown, president of the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research group, is co-author of "Vital Signs 1993: The Trends That Are Shaping Our Future." |
619635_0 | World Economies | |
625062_0 | Stakes High in Apple's Bet on PC | In high-tech country this week, the favorite topic around the water coolers and Stairmasters is whether Apple Computer Inc. has a hit product or a flop in its hand-held Newton Messagepad computer. First announced 17 months ago, with its debut set for a computer trade show in Boston on Monday, the Newton has generated a flurry of opinions on whether Apple has produced the next equivalent of the cellular phone for mobile workers. The machine, which fits in the palm of the hand, is designed to read handwriting, serve as a digital appointment book and use radio waves to send and receive faxes and electronic mail. "This is certainly the buzz of Silicon Valley," said J. Gerry Purdy, a specialist in mobile computing at Dataquest, a San Jose, Calif., market research firm. "People are looking for the next big thing beyond the personal computer." Ever since silicon met transistor nearly 35 years ago, growth in Silicon Valley has been based on a steady stream of new technologies and new products, from the pocket calculator to the digital watch to the video game to the personal computer to the laser printer. But with the Valley in the economic doldrums lately, everyone is anxiously awaiting the next microelectronic best seller. Apple Needs a Winner And Apple, in particular, is desperately seeking a winner. Blindsided by a slowdown in its desktop and portable computer businesses, the company is laying off 2,500 employees -- 16 percent of its work force. The Newton, under development for six years, is the highest-profile example of a product that Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and dozens of small start-ups, as well as Apple, hope will help pull the industry into the next growth cycle. Apple's most immediate competition seems to be the EO Personal Communicator, a $1,995 electronic tablet that contains a cellular phone and has the marketing muscle of A.T.& T. behind it. And due this fall is the Zoomer Z-550, a collaboration of Tandy and Casio Computer that is similar in some ways to the Newton and is expected to be comparably priced. But this week, the industry talk is all Apple. "The early indications are that there is a tremendous amount of excitement about the Newton," said Apple's chairman, John Sculley. "I'm more and more and more convinced that this could be Apple's home run in the 1990's." In developing and marketing the Newton, Apple has changed |
625017_0 | Cuba's H.I.V. Quarantine Takes Toll in Liberty; Medicine From U.S. | To the Editor: "Cuba's Ills Encroach on Health" (news article, July 16) errs in reporting that United States laws, "recently tightened through new legislation . . . prohibit trade with Cuba by American companies and their subsidiaries, even in medicines." Recent changes in United States laws have greatly expanded the ability of United States companies to sell medicines in Cuba. United States companies have long been able, even under our trade embargo, to sell medicines to Cuba for which they were the sole source. These sales, and donations to Cuban nongovernment organizations, were allowed under condition that the medicines not be re-exported, used in the Cuban Government's biotechnology industry or used for torture. Under the Cuban Democracy Act, United States law was amended last year to permit United States companies and their subsidiaries to sell any and all medicines to Cuba, as long as the same conditions are met and verified through on-site inspection. Under one arrangement under consideration, a United States subsidiary may carry out this inspection through its home country's embassy in Havana. Cuba's real problem is that it has little foreign exchange with which to import vital supplies, including medicine, due to the loss of massive Soviet subsidies and the collapse of its socialist economy. DENNIS K. HAYS Coordinator for Cuban Affairs Bureau of Inter-American Affairs Department of State Washington, July 23, 1993 |
620114_1 | Washington at Work; A Switch From Hill to Foggy Bottom Offers a Suddenly Expanding World | declared that his Government now believed that abortion should be made safe and available worldwide. Mr. Wirth calls that speech "the most important thing I have ever done." Mr. Wirth's appointment last winter was widely seen in Washington as a consolation prize: the 53-year-old former Democratic Senator from Colorado had hoped to be named to a Cabinet post in the new Administration. But in the several months since then he has embraced his new job with its bulging portfolio, delving into a host of unfamiliar subjects. The education is necessary for the job, with its wide focus on "transnational issues" -- problems that transcend national borders and are deemed to pose global threats. His province includes the environment, population, refugees, narcotics, counterterrorism and human rights, subjects that Vice President Al Gore calls "central to the world's agenda." "These are subjects that may have been at times peripheral for diplomats during the cold war but are essential now," Mr. Gore said in a recent interview. "They have already created new international realities that can produce nightmares if we don't deal with them successfully." Advocate for New Agenda The Administration says that by consolidating these issues under one official with a rank equivalent to that of Under Secretary, it has elevated them to the same level of importance as bilateral relations with other countries. Mr. Wirth's task is to push to include them in all aspects of American foreign policy. "That's what I've been asked to do here," he said, "to be an advocate for a new set of issues and to build that into American foreign policy. I'm not shy about trying to get these things done." Already there have been some pronounced shifts from the policies of the Bush Administration. In addition to announcing the change in global population and abortion policy, Mr. Wirth represented the United States in recently signing the Biodiversity Treaty, which is intended to protect the world's plants and animals. At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro last year, the United States, maintaining that the treaty would be a threat to economic growth, was the only major industrialized country that refused to endorse it. In contrast, at a meeting of a commission in June to translate the Rio accords into action, Mr. Wirth led an American delegation that won praise for proposals on bridging the gap in development between rich and poor countries and on |
624855_1 | Cuba Will End Restrictions On Exiles Wanting to Visit | in three decades, Risks for the Government The new measures, broadly hinted at in a speech by Mr. Castro on Monday, were first reported in The Miami Herald today. Many experts say that while the measures may quickly generate vital new revenues for the island's Communist Government, they also carry incalculable risks. "This is a gutsy, but really quite dangerous move for the kind of regime they are trying to maintain, with very little political opening," said Jorge Dominguez, a Harvard University specialist in Cuban affairs. "It is dangerous to have all of these free spirits wandering around, none of them with a warm feeling in their hearts for the Government." Andrew Zimbalist, a professor at Smith College who has made a specialty of studying the Cuban economy, said: "This is really going to open a Pandora's box. You will have a crazier mix of incentives than ever before. "Blacks will not have access to dollars, party members who are supposed to be relatively better off will have less money than taxi drivers and if the Government doesn't take some other serious steps a lot of people will see no point in working in their 500-pesos-a-month jobs at all." Relatively few blacks have emigrated from Cuba since Mr. Castro took power in 1959, meaning they would not benefit from remittances sent by relatives abroad. Behind the Mariel Boatlift The last time Havana encouraged large-scale tourism by Cuban-Americans, in the late 1970's, the ensuing social ferment, caused in part by the contact with much more affluent and free-speaking visitors, led to the Mariel boatlift of 1980, when over 100,000 Cubans fled their country in a chaotic scramble. About 100,000 Cuban-Americans visited Cuba in 1979. Since the start-up of Radio Marti, a special United States Government station broadcasting to Cuba, in 1985, travel to Cuba by exiles has been severely limited by a series of restrictions, most of which are now being lifted. On average, about 90 visas a week are granted to Cuban exiles. That the Cuban Government is carrying out such a policy now, experts say, reflects its dire economic situation. By Mr. Castro's own most recent estimates, given in a speech on Monday, a lack of foreign exchange has caused the value of imports to fall to $1.7 billion this year, from $2.2 billion last year. In 1989, before the disintegration of the Soviet bloc, which had long provided |
623423_0 | China, Barreling Along the Capitalist Road, Now Posts Strict Speed Limits | China's new economic program may or may not succeed in bringing down inflation, but it is already having one far-reaching effect: it is making many ordinary workers spitting mad. When millions of Chinese collected their June salaries, they found most or all of their pay docked. The money went to purchase Government bonds, which nearly all urban citizens have been forced to buy. "We asked the boss how we can live for the next month if we don't get paid, and he said we can use our savings," a 40-year-old factory employee complained. "But a lot of people don't have savings. They depend on their salaries to live from month to month, and now all of a sudden they have nothing." Prices Have Jumped The widespread grumbling reflects a general apprehension about the Government's efforts to cool down the economy by taking money out of circulation. In the first six months of this year, China's gross domestic product was 13.9 percent higher than a year earlier, and industrial output jumped 25.1 percent. Prices in 35 large cities rose 21.6 percent at the end of June from a year earlier. Measuring the price increase in June alone and annualizing it, inflation would be much higher, fueled by high consumer demand and what economists consider to be a surplus in the money supply. There have already been a few scattered protests over the Government's economic crackdown, and some officials fear that strikes or peasant riots could become more frequent as austerity measures take hold. Some provincial government offices and companies are already running out of cash, forcing them to pay employees with i.o.u.'s. Any tightening of the money supply may also mean that rural offices will run out of cash to pay for the grain they buy from farmers. Optimism for the Long Term In strictly economic terms, China's difficulties are short-term and reflect the boom-bust cycle that has marked China's growth for the last dozen years. Many foreign and domestic economists are still enormously optimistic about the country's long-term prospects -- but they now sound just a bit more defensive than they did a few months ago. In the last few weeks, the Communist Party leadership has taken tougher steps to rein in the economic growth. Deputy Prime Minister Zhu Rongji has been put in charge of the clampdown, and the leadership is circulating a secret memo, Central Committee Document No. |
620705_0 | Terrorism's New Threat Tests Airports' Security | With each fresh eruption of terrorism in the United States this year -- the car-bomb explosion at the World Trade Center in February, the bombing plot aimed at the United Nations and the Hudson River tunnels -- the nation's major airports have gone on security alert. Some parking lots have been closed, metal detectors have sprouted just inside terminal doors and unattended cars parked at terminals have been quickly towed away and inspected for explosives. While most airport officials, airlines and security companies decline to discuss security measures, those in a position to know say the heightened security will continue through the summer, when about 130 million Americans are expected to fly. Especially at the big international airports, there will be more questioning of more passengers, more pat-downs, more surveillance by metal detectors and more searches of carry-on luggage. Yet some aviation security experts worry that the current security system, installed 20 years ago to thwart hijacking, may not be adequate against a growing terrorist threat. System Has Worked There is not much doubt that the system, including the Federal law adopted in 1973 requiring passengers to pass through metal detectors, have worked well. From a record 40 hijackings in 1969, there have been only two in this country since 1990, none since 1991. The Federal Aviation Administration, which sets security regulations for air travel, said one billion people made their way through the nation's airports last year, with 2,353 firearms and 15 explosive devices being confiscated and 1,337 people arrested. Experts agree that the security measures at American airports are more stringent than those at foreign airports. "Although the image is that Europeans really know about security because they've had to cope with terrorism," said Neil Monroe, a spokesman for Delta Air Lines, "American carriers operate under much higher security standards." After three days of undercover tests, the Conde Nast Traveler concluded in its July issue that security remained lax at Frankfurt International Airport in Germany, just months after a hijacker forced a Lufthansa jet en route to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to fly to New York. "Carry-on baggage screeners repeatedly failed to make the basic checks needed to deter terrorism and insure passenger safety," the magazine reported. Praise From Many Tommy Stadler of Houston, the former director of security for Continental Airlines, helped in the magazine's investigation. Like other consultants, he said the security programs required by the aviation |
620726_0 | U.S. to Bar Calls to Cuba Through Canada | The Clinton Administration plans to close communications services that allow people in the United States to make telephone calls to Cuba through Canada, Administration officials say. In preparation for the move, State Department officials said, they have asked the Treasury Department to determine whether the service offered by "resellers" violates the American trade embargo. If the Treasury Department makes that determination, the companies, as well as the callers, may face fines and imprisonment. Officials of companies that violate the embargo can be fined $500,000 and jailed for 10 years, a Treasury pokesman said, and individuals can be fined $250,000 and jailed for 10 years. The embargo against Cuba was imposed in 1961 to help drive Fidel Castro from power, and it has been expanded several times in recent years. The issue involves companies that advertise toll-free telephone numbers promising to link callers to Cuba through switchboards in Canada that place calls to Cuba. The companies, which bill the callers, have grown because of a declining level of service between the United States and Cuba. They tend to charge as much as $28 for a three-minute call, compared with $3 for the same time charged by A.T.&T. The "resellers" could be found in violation of the embargo because they share the revenues from the calls with Cuba. Because the embargo forbids A.T.&T. to share the revenues with Cuba, the company places what would be Cuba's share in an escrow account, which has $80 million. |
620853_4 | Criticism Without Machinery | And there is nothing old-fashioned about his essay from 1981 on Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" and Toni Morrison's "Song of Solomon." In an apparently leisured but in fact penetrating study of the importance of names in black literature, Mr. Lewis distinguishes between the desire, associated with the 50's, to lose names that tie the bearers to a past that is not their own -- to achieve invisibility, or at least begin anew like Adam -- and the quest, 20 years later, for family history, origins, roots; for a person's true name. Readers will notice a tendency on the part of this avowedly nontheoretical critic to anticipate the discoveries of later theorists -- here, for instance, and in his remarks on the "premature modernity" of Hawthorne. Americanists of Mr. Lewis's generation include such distinguished figures as Daniel Aaron and Irving Howe. This book contains a review of Howe's 1982 autobiography, "A Margin of Hope." More overtly political than Mr. Lewis, Howe offered more definite explanations of the "mysterious phenomenon" of modernism, a movement characteristically conservative yet somehow, in its day and later, seen as compatible with radical politics. (For example, you could be on the left in the 30's and still admire T. S. Eliot.) This essay contains an overview of the celebrated case of the 1949 Bollingen Prize awarded to Ezra Pound for his "Pisan Cantos," a book that, like its author, combined high modernism with fascist and anti-Semitic opinions. Neither Irving Howe nor R. W. B. Lewis would condone the award, arguing that it had been made on the mistaken assumption that poems can contain what look like vicious opinions without being held responsible for them. A poem, Mr. Lewis writes, can be so "morally revolting" as to be "esthetically rotten." These are slippery questions; it is a merit to answer them clearly and decidedly, as both Howe and Mr. Lewis do. The collection ends with tributes to Francis Fergusson, Malcolm Cowley, V. S. Pritchett, Richard Ellmann and Robert Penn Warren, with a series of judicious but admiring comments on Edmund Wilson along the way. We are told that the author is now writing a book about Warren, and another about the city of Florence -- so, as old age looms, R. W. B. Lewis takes on, with praiseworthy astuteness, tasks for which his whole life has prepared him. Frank Kermode's most recent book is "The Uses of Error." |
620744_3 | Technology; Coaxing More Miles From the Electric-Car Battery | far less than nickel-cadmium or other battery systems. ANOTHER key measurement for batteries is the speed with which they can deliver the power they store, a measurement akin to the size of a faucet attached to a tank of water. Lead-acid is a rather small tank with a large faucet; it can deliver stored electricity quickly. But the zinc tends to react more slowly; pushing the reaction too fast tends to create zinc oxide in ways that prevent some of the zinc from reacting. Then there is the recharging problem. As zinc oxide is turned back into zinc through a process that reverses the chemical reaction, it tends to form structures like giant snowflakes, called dendrites, which tend to cause short-circuits. Quick recharging is crucial to the success of electric cars, experts say. At TUV, Dr. Hupfer said if an electric taxi takes a passenger to the airport, "the driver cannot say to the next passenger, 'Wait 3 hours, I have to recharge the battery.' " Dr. Hupfer said he was impressed with the way the Israelis had side-stepped the problem. Their solution is to remove the zinc oxide and replace it with fresh zinc. The zinc oxide is then sent to a factory where the chemical reaction is reversed by adding electricity. The remaining zinc is then re-packaged for use in fresh power cells. BUT, as Mr. Ehrlich acknowledged, the big obstacle is creating the system of re-fueling stations capable of deftly handling the weighty fuel cells. That issue is familiar to another company that is expert in this type of battery, Dreisbach Electromotive Inc., of Santa Barbara, Calif., which is known by its initials, Demi. Demi put a zinc battery in a Honda CRX that handily won the Solar & Electric 500 race, an annual 500-mile race for electric vehicles at the Phoenix International Raceway in 1991. The company subsequently built an electric-powered Saturn that it says beat a gasoline model in a one-mile race at the Phoenix track, becoming the first electric vehicle to outperform the gasoline original. By Demi's calculation, the zinc that needs to be regenerated at each re-fueling weighs about 500 pounds. That is too heavy to be practical for regular replacement, said Leonard G. Danczyk, the director of market development, who added that gasoline needed to go 500 miles weighs about 30 pounds. Demi has developed ways to recharge its zinc cells within |
620743_4 | Technology; Coaxing More Miles From the Electric-Car Battery | create zinc oxide in ways that prevent some of the zinc from reacting. Then there is the recharging problem. As zinc oxide is turned back into zinc through a process that reverses the chemical reaction, it tends to form structures like giant snowflakes, called dendrites, which tend to cause short-circuits. Quick recharging is crucial to the success of electric cars, experts say. At TUV, Dr. Hupfer said if an electric taxi takes a passenger to the airport, "the driver cannot say to the next passenger, 'Wait 3 hours, I have to recharge the battery.' " Dr. Hupfer said he was impressed with the way the Israelis had side-stepped the problem. Their solution is to remove the zinc oxide and replace it with fresh zinc. The zinc oxide is then sent to a factory where the chemical reaction is reversed by adding electricity. The remaining zinc is then re-packaged for use in fresh power cells. BUT, as Mr. Ehrlich acknowledged, the big obstacle is creating the system of re-fueling stations capable of deftly handling the weighty fuel cells. That issue is familiar to another company that is expert in this type of battery, Dreisbach Electromotive Inc., of Santa Barbara, Calif., which is known by its initials, Demi. Demi put a zinc battery in a Honda CRX that handily won the Solar & Electric 500 race, an annual 500-mile race for electric vehicles at the Phoenix International Raceway in 1991. The company subsequently built an electric-powered Saturn that it says beat a gasoline model in a one-mile race at the Phoenix track, becoming the first electric vehicle to outperform the gasoline original. By Demi's calculation, the zinc that needs to be regenerated at each re-fueling weighs about 500 pounds. That is too heavy to be practical for regular replacement, said Leonard G. Danczyk, the director of market development, who added that gasoline needed to go 500 miles weighs about 30 pounds. Demi has developed ways to recharge its zinc cells within the vehicle, allowing a 40-mile recharge in 15 minutes; a 100-mile recharge in an hour, and a full recharge of 300 miles or more in six hours. But Electric Fuel said it had a model in which the zinc components replaced during each re-fueling weigh only about 350 pounds. That is still hefty, but with the proper automated equipment, Electric Fuel said, a service station could handle such a re-fueling quickly. |
621004_2 | Power Lines Raise Fears in Home Buyers | nobody wants them." Ms. Bradbury had passed around a petition, which 30 of her neighbors signed, asking the Westchester County village to hold an informational meeting on the health concerns related to electromagnetic fields. The meeting, held in May, was attended by local residents, politicians and representatives of Con Edison. "We asked Con Edison what they could do to lower the electromagnetic field near our homes," Ms. Bradbury said. "And basically they told us there was nothing to worry about." Similar meetings have been held on Long Island between the Long Island Lighting Company and its customers. In New Jersey, the utilities have been asked by the state's Board of Regulatory Commissioners to study the effects of power lines near schools in their service areas. A study published in Sweden last September involving 50,000 people is considered the best evidence yet of a possible link between electromagnetic fields and cancer. The study, which Ms. Bradbury said she had read, concluded that children living near power lines had four times the rate of leukemia of other children and that adults had 1 1/2 to 3 times the chance of developing cancer. One month after the Swedish study was published, Congress authorized $65 million to conduct further studies on the health effects of electromagnetic fields. The Swedish Government is now considering whether to establish a national standard of two milligauss as a safe level of exposure. Neither the United States nor any individual states has set standards for a safe level of exposure. NEW YORK STATE now allows a maximum of 200 milligauss at the edge of power line rights of way. And there is now a bill in the New York State Assembly asking for a recommended safe exposure level to be established for electrical workers and for areas accessible by the public. "Right now people feel impacted and endangered," said Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, a Greenburgh Democrat who is sponsoring the bill. "We have to address the problem because it's not going to go away." Scientists maintain that many other factors can account for a high reading, even for houses near power lines. "The neighborhood lines that carry power into your house can account for high readings," said David O. Carpenter, dean of the School of Public Health at the State University of New York at Albany. "There's also the home's appliances. They may be more of a problem than the |
620751_1 | Dispute Over Danube Dam Threatens Hungarian Wetlands | into the Danube in northwestern Hungary. Some smaller branches of the river have dried out completely, and the groundwater level has dropped by a yard in some places, and by two and a half in others. After Czechoslovakia split into two nations on Jan. 1, Slovakia inherited the power station linked to the dam and the legal dispute. In May, Hungary and Slovakia turned to the World Court at The Hague to decide which country was at fault. No one can predict when the Court will hand down its decision, but some lawyers say it could be years. Under the terms of an agreement brokered by the European Community, Hungary and Slovakia are to work out a temporary distribution of water until the Court reaches a decision. They have yet to reach an agreement. But the survival of the wetlands may ultimately depend on the outcome of a domestic dispute over how to treat the environmental damage sustained so far. Hungarians Divided Over Plan Hungarians are divided over an emergency plan to save the Szigetkoz. Many worry that any construction or channeling to preserve the habitat could signal that Hungary is willing to budge from its opposition to the dam. They argue that the terms of the case at The Hague dictate that no work can be done on the river until a final decision is handed down. Others argue that limited engineering to avert an environmental disaster is an international right that must be allowed by the Court. The Hungarian Government and many civil engineers favor using part of the system originally built for the dam on the Hungarian side of the river to pump water into the critically dry area. The Government has allotted more than $1.8 million to that project, which would involve building an additional ledge across the river to raise the water level, allowing water to flow into the river's branches. "Some say the Szigetkoz could last one year, which may be true for the trees, but I don't think it goes for the wildlife," said Jozsef Kertesz, the chief engineer in the regional water management office. "We need very swift intervention to repair the damage." [ On Saturday, engineers and environmentalists in the Szigetkoz struck a compromise to start pumping water into the dried-out branches on an experimental basis in the coming week. ] There is a stark contrast between the two halves of |
620851_0 | Sex, Triads and Chromaticism | BENJAMIN BRITTEN A Biography. By Humphrey Carpenter. Illustrated. 677 pp. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. $30. "PERSONAL causes have as much or as little to do with a work of art as the soil with the plant that springs from it," C. G. Jung once wrote. "The plant is not a mere product of the soil; it is a living, self-contained process. . . . In the same way, the meaning and individual quality of a work of art inhere within it and not in its extrinsic determinants." Throughout his lengthy, skillfully crafted and sometimes fascinating biography of Benjamin Britten, Humphrey Carpenter has made the mistake of defining the plant by the soil and attempting to force relevance from the extrinsic. The more is the pity, because Mr. Carpenter, the author of biographies of W. H. Auden and Ezra Pound, has drawn liberally from documents in the Britten-Pears Foundation, interviewed a great many of the composer's colleagues and brought us interesting revelations. His most significant disclosures in "Benjamin Britten" have to do with the composer's sexual orientation. Although Britten lived with the tenor Peter Pears for 37 years, he was reluctant to admit his sexual preference openly. It should be kept in mind that homosexuality was a criminal offense in Britain until 1967. Britten was sensitive to the prevailing mores and believed, with some justification, that his homosexuality as well as his pacifism prevented him from being fully accepted by the establishment. Mr. Carpenter also extensively documents Britten's lifelong interest in young boys. Those interviewed who had boyhood encounters with the composer remember him, above all, for his kindness and gentleness. Some ended up in bed with Britten, but with the bond of affection sealed by no more than a good-night kiss. In these relationships the erotic impetus seems to have been overshadowed by a paternal longing. Mr. Carpenter believes, however, that the friendships were of a "compulsory platonic" nature, and were a source of much tension for Britten. In any case, he had a great capacity for giving affection, and regretted that he had not fathered a child. Mr. Carpenter omits to mention that a kindly attention was often bestowed on girls. Another of Mr. Carpenter's disclosures is the frequency with which Britten distanced himself from colleagues -- librettists, singers, administrators -- when they were no longer of use to him creatively. In providing a litany of such testimony |
620706_4 | Clinton in Korea: A Call for a Pacific Community Based on 'Shared Strength' | withdrawals and are modernizing Korean and American forces on the peninsula. We have deployed to Japan the Belleau Wood amphibious group and the U.S.S. Independence battle group, the largest and most modern in the world. These are not signs of disengagement. These are signs that America intends to stay. The Threat of Nuclear Arms The second security priority for our new Pacific community is to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery. We cannot let the expanding threat of these deadly weapons replace the cold war nightmare of nuclear annihilation. Today that possibility is too real. North Korea appears committed to indiscriminate sales of the Scud missiles that were such a source of terror and destruction in the Persian Gulf. Now it is developing, testing and looking to export a more powerful missile with a range of 600 miles or more; enough for North Korea to threaten Osaka, or for Iran to threaten Tel Aviv. We have serious concerns as well about China's compliance with international standards against missile proliferation. And, since both you and we are attempting to engage China in a more extensive trade relationship, I hope together we can have a positive influence against that development. The Pacific nations simply must develop new ways to combat the spread of biological, chemical and missile technologies. And, in the coming weeks, the U.S. will propose new efforts aimed at that goal. But no specter hangs over this peninsula or this region more darkly than the danger of nuclear proliferation. Nearly 160 nations have now joined to resist that threat through the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, the most universally supported treaty in all history. Now, for the first time since that treaty was opened for signatures, one of its members has threatened to withdraw. Our goal has remained firm. We seek a nonnuclear Korean peninsula and robust global rules against proliferation. That is why we urge North Korea to reaffirm its commitment to the nonproliferation treaty, to fulfill scope safeguards obligations to the International Atomic Energy Agency, including I.A.E.A. inspections of undeclared nuclear sites, and to implement bilateral inspections under the South-North nuclear accord. Our goal is not endless discussions, but certifiable compliance. North Korea must understand our intentions. We are seeking to prevent aggression, not to initiate it, and so long as North Korea abides by the U.N. charter and international nonproliferation commitments, it |
623009_0 | Top Chefs Try to Develop Taste for Amazon Fish At Rain-Forest Benefit | FOR the last few years, we've been inundated with rain-forest products, especially fruits and nuts, to highlight the plight of threatened tropical regions. Now, along come fish. An exotic contingent consisting of tucunare, filhote, tambaqui, pescada, piramutaba and dourada were recently flown to this country for a benefit that had two goals: to interest chefs in using the Amazon fish, and to alert people that fish, too, are linked to the imperiled ecology of rain forests. The benefit, in East Hampton, L.I., on Kay LeRoy's rolling lawns, raised money for the Rainforest Alliance, a nonprofit organization based in New York that is dedicated to preserving the world's tropical forests. About the only fish from the Amazon River most people can name is the voraciously carnivorous piranha, which, although supposedly delectable, was not served at the benefit because it is annoyingly bony. But there were plenty of other choices, as there are 3,000 species of freshwater fish that inhabit the Amazon, a river system that includes a fifth of all the world's river water. By creating a larger market for the fish, fish farms could be organized in the Amazon region. That would help preserve the rain forest by creating jobs for local people and using, but not overusing, the local resources. "Deforestation not only destroys land, it also damages the Amazon flood plain which is the habitat of these fish," said Michael Goulding, a research scientist at the University of Florida in Gainsville who is director of the alliance's Amazon Rivers Project. Each guest paid $250 to taste the fish and trappings created for them by some of the New York area's best-known chefs, including David Bouley, Gilbert Le Coze, Jean Jacques Rachou, Ed Brown, Charles Palmer, Michel Bourdeaux, David Waltuck, Eric Ripert, Debra Ponzek, Andre Soltner and Pat Trama. These chefs, who either work in Manhattan or East Hampton, would not normally touch a frozen fish, much less a block of tucunare or a whole frozen tambaqui. But freezing the fish was essential because of the hot climate and the remoteness of the fishery, 1,000 miles up the Amazon in Brazil. It also destroyed any parasites that might be present in the fish. Although initially wary of using frozen fish, the chefs were generally impressed with their taste. One that was served, tambaqui, eats fruits and nuts from trees that become submerged when the Amazon floods. It grows to |
622973_0 | E-mail Is Becoming A Cheap-Fax Network | The dividing line between paper facsimile documents and electronic mail is vanishing. Thanks to the volunteer efforts of a group of computer network designers, the network of networks known as Internet now permits users to send an e-mail message to be printed out on fax machines at a growing number of sites around the world. Because transmission charges on the Internet are minimal compared with those of the long-distance phone calls normally used for faxes, the system is a cheap way to send faxes across the country or around the world. To use the system, begun this month as an experiment in remote printing, computer mail users include a fax telephone number in the address portion of their message. The message, which may include both text and graphics, will then be automatically routed to a site that has agreed to serve a local geographic "cell" for delivery of the fax message. So far, participating regions include all of Japan, Australia, the Netherlands and Ireland, and in the United States, metropolitan Washington, Silicon Valley and parts of the San Francisco Bay area, as well as other pockets of the country. Leading the project is Marshall T. Rose, a computer communications consultant at Dover Beach Consulting in Mountain View, Calif. He has worked with another Internet researcher, Carl Malamud, who has created Internet Talk Radio, a weekly commercial audio program that is distributed internationally and can be played on computer work stations. The fax cell sites are computers on the Internet that are also connected to inexpensive computer-controlled fax modems that can route the files to virtually any fax machine. Each site can designate the size of the area that it will serve -- whether an entire city or just the fax machines within a particular company. So far, in keeping with the utopianism that still permeates Internet culture, none of the fax middlemen and -women are charging for their services. Mr. Rose noted that the blurring of fax and electronic mail would raise thorny questions. "Is this global and local bypass of the telephone companies using the Internet?" he asked rhetorically. "Is this legal? We need to think about this." BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY |
622835_0 | I.R.A. Deserves Place At Ulster Peace Table | To the Editor: Your July 12 news article on Northern Ireland says that "the peace talks sponsored by the British Government seem to have collapsed beyond any chance of resumption this year." That's for sure. Peace talks take place between people who are doing the fighting. The British Government is very emphatic that the Irish Republican Army is a, if not the, cause of the problem in Northern Ireland, yet at the same time it maintains that there can be "peace talks" without the I.R.A. That doesn't make sense. All parties to the conflict in Northern Ireland must be part of the talks. If the Irish Republican Army is not part of the peace talks, how will the I.R.A. make peace? For 20 years the British Government has thrown everything it has against the I.R.A. and has still failed to eliminate it. Why? Because it is British policy that created the Irish Republican Army and maintains its existence. That is the lesson of Irish history. Now is the time for President Clinton to keep his promise to appoint an envoy for Northern Ireland. (Rev.) SEAN MCMANUS Pres., Irish National Caucus Washington, July 12, 1993 |
622490_2 | Patents | doctors have long debated whether expectant mothers should wear them at all. Trying to reconcile the need for belts with the risk of potentially injuring a fetus, Dr. Ethel Grene has patented a safety restraint that straps around a woman's thighs and chest. "It's a question of preventing the lap belt from riding up and injuring the bulge," Dr. Grene, an emergency-room physician at hospitalsin northern Indiana, said. In accidents and sudden stops, "the prime concern is rupturing the uterus, or direct trauma to the fetus like skull injuries, or ruptured spleen or liver." Her invention would be purchased separately from the car and could be used in any vehicle. The lower straps would attach to the base of a car seat and restrain the woman's thighs. The upper straps would fit around the seat back and her chest. Dr. Grene's patent is No. 5,215,345. Flood Levees From Old Tires Some of the levees that have given way along the Mississippi River in the last couple of weeks failed because the water forced breaches in the barriers, which then kept widening. An engineer in Tacoma, Wash., says that an underwater construction system, one using old car tires like a chain-link fence, could have helped to control the flooding. Robert Hamilton, a civilian Army engineer, did not set out to patent levees. What he wanted was to find a good use for the millions of tires discarded in this country each year. So he designed a construction system using tires as molds for concrete. "You drill holes in the tires and put metal rods through the holes, so they stick out the sides," Mr. Hamilton explained. The metal rods perform the same function as reinforcing bars in ordinary construction. Another rod, perpendicular to the first, is added to each tire. Concrete is then poured into the tires, which act as a mold. With drilling done through the tread, the tires would be connected or built up in layers by linking the reinforcing rods sticking out of the hardened concrete. Mr. Hamilton's system is intended to be used for underwater construction of artificial reefs, for bridge and dock foundations, for filling swamps and for building levees. "The Army Corps of Engineers talked to me about using the system along the Mississippi and the delta area where the land keeps sinking," he said. "The Mississippi River right now is a prime example. The |
622559_0 | World Economies | |
622460_3 | Cheap Beeps: Across Nation, Electronic Pagers Proliferate | consumers. Once sold mainly through specialized shops, pagers are now widely available, not just in telephone and consumer electronics stores, but also at Wal-Mart, Service Merchandise, Walgreen's and their rivals. Operating Costs With $2.2 billion in revenue last year, the paging business is still dwarfed by the $8.8 billion in annual revenue for the cellular industry, even though in 1992 paging had 15.3 million subscribers and cellular had 11 million. The paging industry takes in less because it charges less. Its operating costs are much lower than those of the cellular industry, which also uses radio waves to distribute its signals. Because paging messages use only short bursts of data, rather than the continuous stream of voice conversations of cellular phones, many more customers can simultaneously use a given swath of radio frequencies. For each 10 seconds of one cellular conversation, the paging network can carry more than 100 numeric messages. Paging networks are also cheaper to build than cellular phone networks. The Mobile Telecommunications Technologies Corporation, known as Mtel, a national paging company based in Jackson, Miss., estimated that in a city like Dallas it costs $500,000 for enough transmitters and equipment to carry paging services with the capacity for 300,000 subscribers. It would take up to $10 million for cellular equipment for a comparable number of voice customers, the company said. Consumers have benefited from robust competition in the paging industry. In a given metropolitan area, dozens of competing service providers may be vying for customers. 'Falling Prices' In the 1970's, when the industry was much smaller and still mainly a plumbers-and-doctors business, pagers cost about $300 and monthly service fees ranged up to $50. Today only the most sophisticated devices capable of receiving text cost more than $300. Most cost much less and many can be leased for only a few dollars a month. And the average monthly bill for paging service has fallen to about $17 for people who own their pagers and $23 for those who lease them. There is far less competition in the cellular phone industry because when Federal regulators established the cellular networks, they licensed only two companies in each metropolitan market. The idea was to give companies the incentive to invest the larger sums required for building the systems. Of course, paging is still a rather limited technology. Motorola's top-of-the-line pager, the Advisor (list price $349), can hold up to 40 |
621322_3 | Ocean Pioneer Mines Energy That Is Cool, Clean and Free | Craven sees the mix of cold water electrical production, air-conditioning, aquaculture and agriculture as a boon to the developing world, much of which lies in the equatorial band of the planet where strong sunlight generates big temperature differences between the ocean's upper and lower reaches. "Deep ocean water is a resource that can, today, provide environmentally sustainable economic self-sufficiency and independence for tropical island and coastal nations around the world," he wrote last year in The Marine Technology Society Journal. Dr. Thomas H. Daniel, the laboratory's chief scientist, called Dr. Craven a gifted visionary. "He saw before many other people that the ocean is a very large potential resource," Dr. Daniel said. "We can get 10 terawatts of electricity out of the oceans continuously, which is about man's usage right now." Dr. Craven was born in Brooklyn in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge and joined the Navy during World War II, serving in Hawaii and earning two battle stars before being sent to Cornell University for advanced education. After the war, under the G.I. Bill, he studied at the California Institute of Technology and the University of Iowa, where he met his wife of 42 years, Dorothy, and received a doctorate in mechanics and hydraulics. Important Navy Projects In 1951 he began working for the Navy as a civilian, studying how to improve ships and submarines. He was promoted quickly after correctly predicting and helping solve a structural problem with the Navy's first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus. After serving as chief scientist to the Navy's special project's office, where he helped develop the Polaris missile, Dr. Craven in 1963 became head of the Navy's Deep Submergence Systems Project. There he pioneered advanced vehicles for deep-ocean search, rescue and salvage. He and his team played important roles in major political crises. In 1966 he helped find an American hydrogen bomb that had been lost off the coast of Spain and in 1968 helped locate the twisted wreckage of a nuclear-powered attack submarine, the Scorpion, in waters nearly two miles deep. The fleet of underwater vehicles that he helped develop included the Navy's NR-1, a deep-diving nuclear submarine with crab-like claws for picking up objects; the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle, a cylindrical craft that could save up to 24 people at a time from a sunken submarine; and the bathyscaph Trieste, a deep diving vessel that his team improved to increase |
621335_1 | A Living Time Bomb? The African Crocodile Finds a Home in Brazil | transfer of Africa's largest and most violent crocodilian to South America has created a biological time bomb comparable to storing plutonium at Grand Central Station. According to the ecologists' nightmare scenario, crocodiles will eventually escape from the ranch, which is only 200 yards from a major inland waterway system. Larger than any crocodilian found in South America, an adult Crocodylus niloticus can measure 20 feet long and weigh one ton. "All the crocodile farms we know of are leaky on the long term," William E. Magnusson, an Australian crocodile specialist at the Institute for Amazon Studies, argued in a telephone interview from Manaus, Brazil. Scientists fear that the Nile crocodiles, able to dominate local competitors with a few snaps of their jaws, would aggressively colonize the wetlands of central South America, first the Pantanal river system and then the Amazon. Once in the Amazon, the world's largest river system, the Nile crocodiles would be enormously expensive to eradicate. Camouflaged by their dark green color, they kill dozens of people every year in Africa, more than any other wild animal. "If Nile crocodiles were to escape, there is a strong probability that they would breed rapidly in the wild and would spread, not only throughout Brazil, but also to other countries in tropical South America, as has happened with the African bee," Richard Luxmoore of the World Conservation Monitoring Center in London wrote to the Brazilian authorities to protest the hatchery. Tight Security In 1957, bees imported from Africa escaped from a breeding experiment in southern Brazil. Subsequently dubbed "killer bees," the species has killed 1,000 people during a 36-year flight through Latin America, said Dr. Mark L. Winston, a professor of biological sciences at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. Three years ago, the bees invaded Texas. They are expected to enter Arizona this year and southern California next year. In another controversy over alien species, Brazilian environmentalists are trying to tighten controls at hatcheries stocked with African walking catfish, a recent and clandestine import. After several of the fish escaped from the hatcheries, they proved to be aggressive predators in Brazil's lagoons and mangrove swamps. "Having surveyed a large number of crocodile farms in countries all around the world, I am aware of none that is completely secure," wrote Dr. Luxmoore, who is head of the center's habitat unit. Partly as a result of ecologists' fears, the ranch here |
621176_1 | Life's Sweeter on the Electronic Superhighway | he asks. "To get a message a few minutes sooner?" Yes, I would prefer to have my written correspondence in three minutes, rather than three days, and with a confirmation notice, to boot. "To play more games?" Yes, I like games. Games are fun. "Will we eat better?" Yes. Consumer Reports, for example, is on line with food and other product information. So is the Agriculture Department. Information links among scientists, farmers, manufacturers, stores and consumers are a great idea. "Make love better?" Yes. Thousands of people are experiencing the "safe thrill" of meeting on line. On line one meets a person's mind, heart and soul first. One also has recourse, as in the above food question, to even more megabytes of information on human sexuality. "Raise our children better?" Yes. Most hardware, software and telecommunications companies, even the bitterest of enemies and the fiercest of competitors, agree on the importance of using the technology for educating children, and they all commit money and resources to it. Are there madmen involved? Yes, of course, and women as well. Mad people are mad, not stupid, and have no problems using the technology. Will the Government watch us? Probably, to the extent the users let it. Private companies in the United States have tried for years to tie people together by electronic networks and have brought us some spectacular failures, notably the Nynex Info-Look gateway $11 million explosion and the leaky boat of Prodigy. For those who know how to find and use the military-industrial-academic-government complex of Internet, the global computer network, it is available at a rate amounting to welfare for the middle class. A tangle of regulations, laws, lawsuits and bad management has prevented a proper information system from emerging for common people. France, the one country with such a system, broke the logjam by having the Government build the net and passing out terminals free to everyone. We don't have to go that far to get the net's benefits. However, neither are private companies likely to sell profit delays to stockholders. I would like to see my Government act as an agent for me, getting companies together, easing red tape and tossing around some seed money and publicity. I would be willing to shell out more taxes for what I know will be a major improvement in my quality of life. ANDREW PAUL GRELL New York, July 6, 1993 |
620061_2 | Why Just Drive, When You Can Fax, Dial, Shave, Eat and Brush? | consider activities in their cars like talking on the phone, brushing their teeth or drinking coffee to be private behavior. "Even though most drivers are exposed, there is an assumption of being alone in private space," he said. Cindy Yorks, a freelance writer in Tustin, Calif., remembers the time she decided to catch up on her reading while stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. "I was living in Houston at the time and reading a story in The Chronicle," she said. "I must have really gotten caught up in the story because the next thing I heard was bam! It was my car hitting the back of the car in front of me." While the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does not classify accidents under specific causes like "eating a bagel" or "talking on the telephone," it does place inattentive driving (which includes talking, eating, etc.) as No. 4 in their list of the 11 most common reasons for fatal crashes. In 1991, the latest year for which the organization has statistics, 3,920 fatal accidents, or 7.2 percent of all fatal accidents in the United States, were caused by inattentive driving. The percentage has remained unchanged since 1987. Technological gadgets provide appealing distractions from the road, but they carry risks. According to a 1991 study by the AAA Foundation on Traffic Safety, using a cellular phone can reduce a driver's attentiveness to the road by 20 percent or more. Older drivers tend to be more distracted by car phones, the study found. "The more complicated the conversation, the more visual cues drivers missed," Mr. Yaksich said. But the phone is just one distraction. "Cars are now equipped with cup holders, food trays, lighted vanity mirrors, and fax machines," he said. "The Japanese are even testing a microwave for the car. They're also developing an interactive car navigational system that tells you when to turn left or right. We're concerned about how much you can deal with drivers' psyche and attention before you impact safety." Auto makers say the devices are being offered in response to customer demand. Jack Dinan, a spokesman for General Motors, said most of the company's cars included consoles with coin holders and cup holders as standard features. Mr. Dinan admits to sipping a cup of coffee during his 100-mile daily commute. "Face it, we all do it," he said. "I like my cup holder." At the same time, |
620006_2 | World Bank Reports Major Health Gains for Poor | likely to be overwhelmed by new threats from drug-resistant forms of malaria and tuberculosis, growing consumption of tobacco in third-world countries and AIDS, the report said. The malaria death rate could double, to 2 million a year within a decade, the report said, and tobacco-related deaths from heart disease and cancer are likely to double to 2 million a year by 2010. Unless smoking declines, the report warned, tobacco-related deaths will reach 12 million a year in developing countries in the second quarter of the 21st century and premature deaths caused by tobacco in the developing world will exceed the expected deaths from AIDS, tuberculosis and complications of childbirth combined. In developing countries where death rates among children are 10 times higher than in developed countries, the pace of progress has been uneven. In Indonesia, the child death rate dropped by half between 1960 and 1990, whereas in Ghana the death rate over the same period fell only slightly. If death rates among children in poor countries were reduced to those prevailing in wealthy countries, 11 million fewer children would die each year. Almost half of the preventable deaths are due to diarrheal and respiratory illness combined with malnutrition. High Maternal Death Rates As for adults, 7 million die each year of conditions that could be prevented or cured at low cost. Tuberculosis alone accounts for 2 million deaths. About 400,000 women die from the direct complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Maternal death rates are 30 times higher in developing countries than in developed countries. In attempting to correct the misallocation of health resources, the bank urged governments to reduce by half what they now spend on less cost-effective interventions and double or triple the amount spent on basic public health programs such as immunizations, AIDS prevention, treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and essential clinical services. In calling attention to major areas of waste, the report said that very few cost-effective interventions depend on sophisticated hospitals and specialized physicians. In some countries a single teaching hospital can absorb 20 percent of the budget of a ministry of health, even though nearly all cost-effective interventions are best delivered at lower-level centers. Hospitals often keep patients longer than necessary and are poorly organized and managed. Countries pay too much for drugs of low efficacy, and drugs and supplies are stolen or go to waste in government warehouses and hospitals. In low-income countries, |
621374_4 | Personal Health | become porous and weak. Activities like weight-lifting that involve high loads and high stresses (and consequent muscle strengthening) are more effective at building bone than activities that involve many repetitive cycles, like running, walking or swimming. Strength training like lifting weights or working out on resistance machines like Nautilus and Universal equipment has recently emerged as one of the best ways to strengthen bones in the spine and elsewhere, even in the elderly. Alternative activities include using a rowing machine or an exercise cycle with increased resistance on the flywheel. The benefits of exercise to bone seem to be specific to the activity. Thus, runners and cyclists tend to have denser bones than sedentary people in their legs and hips, but not in their arms or spines. Tennis players have denser bones in their playing arm than in the arm that merely tosses serves. Swimmers who do a vigorous crawl would have denser bones in their arms and shoulders than in their legs. To strengthen bones bodywide, then, a variety of activities should be pursued that use different muscles against resistance, for example, cycling and swimming. Exercise helps bones in another important way: by increasing a person's stability and reaction time and decreasing the likelihood of a bone-breaking fall. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis showed that exercise sped the brain's ability to process information. Accordingly, they found that elderly people who were physically active were less likely to fall and when they did fall, they were less likely to fracture a hip. They may instead suffer a broken wrist, which is far less serious than breaking a hip, because they are quick enough to allow their hands to break their fall. False Security Although exercise is the only way known to increase bone mass after a person's 20's, it cannot work without the proper support. This means taking in an adequate amount of the bone-building mineral calcium, preferably from food and if not, through supplements: 1,000 milligrams a day before menopause and 1,500 milligrams after. Nor can exercise alone increase bone mass enough to offset the losses that result from estrogen depletion at menopause. Thus, experts in osteoporosis often recommend estrogen replacement therapy for all postmenopausal women who can use it safely. Furthermore, they recommend adopting bone-building living habits during the teen-age and young adult years to establish a larger "retirement fund" of bone. |
621485_4 | Personal Health | become porous and weak. Activities like weight-lifting that involve high loads and high stresses (and consequent muscle strengthening) are more effective at building bone than activities that involve many repetitive cycles, like running, walking or swimming. Strength training like lifting weights or working out on resistance machines like Nautilus and Universal equipment has recently emerged as one of the best ways to strengthen bones in the spine and elsewhere, even in the elderly. Alternative activities include using a rowing machine or an exercise cycle with increased resistance on the flywheel. The benefits of exercise to bone seem to be specific to the activity. Thus, runners and cyclists tend to have denser bones than sedentary people in their legs and hips, but not in their arms or spines. Tennis players have denser bones in their playing arm than in the arm that merely tosses serves. Swimmers who do a vigorous crawl would have denser bones in their arms and shoulders than in their legs. To strengthen bones bodywide, then, a variety of activities should be pursued that use different muscles against resistance, for example, cycling and swimming. Exercise helps bones in another important way: by increasing a person's stability and reaction time and decreasing the likelihood of a bone-breaking fall. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis showed that exercise sped the brain's ability to process information. Accordingly, they found that elderly people who were physically active were less likely to fall and when they did fall, they were less likely to fracture a hip. They may instead suffer a broken wrist, which is far less serious than breaking a hip, because they are quick enough to allow their hands to break their fall. False Security Although exercise is the only way known to increase bone mass after a person's 20's, it cannot work without the proper support. This means taking in an adequate amount of the bone-building mineral calcium, preferably from food and if not, through supplements: 1,000 milligrams a day before menopause and 1,500 milligrams after. Nor can exercise alone increase bone mass enough to offset the losses that result from estrogen depletion at menopause. Thus, experts in osteoporosis often recommend estrogen replacement therapy for all postmenopausal women who can use it safely. Furthermore, they recommend adopting bone-building living habits during the teen-age and young adult years to establish a larger "retirement fund" of bone. |
621375_4 | Personal Health | become porous and weak. Activities like weight-lifting that involve high loads and high stresses (and consequent muscle strengthening) are more effective at building bone than activities that involve many repetitive cycles, like running, walking or swimming. Strength training like lifting weights or working out on resistance machines like Nautilus and Universal equipment has recently emerged as one of the best ways to strengthen bones in the spine and elsewhere, even in the elderly. Alternative activities include using a rowing machine or an exercise cycle with increased resistance on the flywheel. The benefits of exercise to bone seem to be specific to the activity. Thus, runners and cyclists tend to have denser bones than sedentary people in their legs and hips, but not in their arms or spines. Tennis players have denser bones in their playing arm than in the arm that merely tosses serves. Swimmers who do a vigorous crawl would have denser bones in their arms and shoulders than in their legs. To strengthen bones bodywide, then, a variety of activities should be pursued that use different muscles against resistance, for example, cycling and swimming. Exercise helps bones in another important way: by increasing a person's stability and reaction time and decreasing the likelihood of a bone-breaking fall. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis showed that exercise sped the brain's ability to process information. Accordingly, they found that elderly people who were physically active were less likely to fall and when they did fall, they were less likely to fracture a hip. They may instead suffer a broken wrist, which is far less serious than breaking a hip, because they are quick enough to allow their hands to break their fall. False Security Although exercise is the only way known to increase bone mass after a person's 20's, it cannot work without the proper support. This means taking in an adequate amount of the bone-building mineral calcium, preferably from food and if not, through supplements: 1,000 milligrams a day before menopause and 1,500 milligrams after. Nor can exercise alone increase bone mass enough to offset the losses that result from estrogen depletion at menopause. Thus, experts in osteoporosis often recommend estrogen replacement therapy for all postmenopausal women who can use it safely. Furthermore, they recommend adopting bone-building living habits during the teen-age and young adult years to establish a larger "retirement fund" of bone. |
621369_4 | Personal Health | become porous and weak. Activities like weight-lifting that involve high loads and high stresses (and consequent muscle strengthening) are more effective at building bone than activities that involve many repetitive cycles, like running, walking or swimming. Strength training like lifting weights or working out on resistance machines like Nautilus and Universal equipment has recently emerged as one of the best ways to strengthen bones in the spine and elsewhere, even in the elderly. Alternative activities include using a rowing machine or an exercise cycle with increased resistance on the flywheel. The benefits of exercise to bone seem to be specific to the activity. Thus, runners and cyclists tend to have denser bones than sedentary people in their legs and hips, but not in their arms or spines. Tennis players have denser bones in their playing arm than in the arm that merely tosses serves. Swimmers who do a vigorous crawl would have denser bones in their arms and shoulders than in their legs. To strengthen bones bodywide, then, a variety of activities should be pursued that use different muscles against resistance, for example, cycling and swimming. Exercise helps bones in another important way: by increasing a person's stability and reaction time and decreasing the likelihood of a bone-breaking fall. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis showed that exercise sped the brain's ability to process information. Accordingly, they found that elderly people who were physically active were less likely to fall and when they did fall, they were less likely to fracture a hip. They may instead suffer a broken wrist, which is far less serious than breaking a hip, because they are quick enough to allow their hands to break their fall. False Security Although exercise is the only way known to increase bone mass after a person's 20's, it cannot work without the proper support. This means taking in an adequate amount of the bone-building mineral calcium, preferably from food and if not, through supplements: 1,000 milligrams a day before menopause and 1,500 milligrams after. Nor can exercise alone increase bone mass enough to offset the losses that result from estrogen depletion at menopause. Thus, experts in osteoporosis often recommend estrogen replacement therapy for all postmenopausal women who can use it safely. Furthermore, they recommend adopting bone-building living habits during the teen-age and young adult years to establish a larger "retirement fund" of bone. |
624373_0 | World Economies | |
624209_1 | Panel to Study Quality of Air In Plane Cabins | were circulating less fresh air into the cabins of many airplanes. Flight attendants, as well as some passengers, complain that the practice causes headaches, nausea and other health problems, especially after long flights. The Transportation Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have also begun inquiries into the effects of a reduction of fresh air, which occurs on newer planes. Aircraft built before the mid-80's provided cabins with 100 percent fresh air that was circulated every three minutes. Looking at Contaminates But the newer models provide half fresh air and half recirculated air that is freshened every six or seven minutes. The recirculation system saves fuel and money. Air that is brought in from outside comes through the engines and is heated to very high temperatures; it has to be cooled before it enters the cabin. Recirculation saves an average $60,000 a plane annually. More than half the seats on the seven million domestic flights last year were on aircraft with the new systems, experts said. Dr. Andrew Horne, a medical officer with the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Aviation Medicine, said: "I think it's more desirable to have outside air, but it's a trade-off. If you want to spend more money for fuel, then you get more outside air." The disease centers are investigating whether airplane ventilation systems contribute to the spread of contagious diseases, including tuberculosis. "We have been very much concerned with the transmission of respiratory diseases in airlines," said Dr. Walter R. Dowdle, deputy director of the centers. Mr. Valentine said the panel's investigation would also focus on contaminants in cabin air. A Transportation Department report, issued in December 1989, on how smoking affected the air on planes found high levels of carbon monoxide and ozone on some aircraft. "While the issue of tobacco smoke on airplanes focused attention on this problem, we can now see what the other villains are, if any," Mr. Valentine said. "It's my understanding that a general conclusion of the report was that there were many other contaminants that should be of concern, including high concentrations of carbon dioxide, ozone and microbiological aerosols and viruses." The witnesses at Thursday's hearing are expected to include John Burt, the Federal Aviation Administration's executive director for system development, officials of the disease centers, and representatives of the Association of Flight Attendants, which has complained about the quality of air in airline cabins. |
624230_0 | Patents | THE debate among new parents, environmentalists and diaper manufacturers never seems to end: Which is better -- cloth or disposable? Dana L. Watson, of Wichita Falls, Tex., adds a new dimension to the diaper debate with a newly patented invention that he says will recycle disposable diapers at a profit to the recycler. Mr. Watson, 36, who like his father and grandfather is in the dry-cleaning business, constructed his invention from second-hand 30-foot-long industrial washing machines. Mr. Watson is not the first to try to recycle the material in diapers. In a $750,000 experiment, the Seattle Solid Waste Utility in Washington State recycled disposable diapers in a trial underwritten by the Procter & Gamble Company, the maker of Pampers and Luvs. That trial employed a "hydropulper," which is normally used to recycle newspapers and which acts as an enormous blender. Before trying to separate the ingredients, the hydropulper chlorinated and chopped up the diapers, which are made of plastic wood fiber and a "super absorbent" polymer, a grainy material that constitutes about five grams in a normal clean diaper and turns to jelly as it absorbs up to 100 times its weight in liquid. "Basically they ended up with a congealed mess," Mr. Watson said. Mr. Watson says that his invention, which has cost upwards of $200,000 to develop, provides a far more elegant solution. First, it washes the diapers with soap and water and a chemical compound. As the diaper breaks apart during agitation, this compound neutralizes the polymer so that it will no longer absorb water. The polymer then washes away with the soap while the plastic stays behind. Meanwhile, the cellulose -- the main material to be recovered -- moves on to a machine where it is cleaned and sterilized. The inventor says his machine will work just as successfully removing the ink from newspapers and hard-to-recycle magazines and therefore could have much wider application than the 2 percent of landfill waste that diapers are thought to constitute. After receiving negative responses from more than 60 companies, Mr. Watson last week signed an exclusive licensing agreement with the Pellerin Milnor Corporation, a textile-manufacturing concern in Kenner, La. Procter & Gamble, for its part, says it has abandoned the idea of recycling and instead has sunk $20 million into the development of a composting system that will turn diapers into fertilizer. Mr. Watson received patent 5,225,045. Abstract Math |
624213_4 | Illegal Angle: Inertia Mires New Schools | school. Science and Neighborhood The team sketched out plans for a school with grades 7-12 that would combine a focus on science and technology with neighborhood rehabilitation projects. In September, their proposal won one of 14 planning grants, financed by the Aaron Diamond Foundation, as well as a preliminary go-ahead from the school system. In early meetings, school officials encouraged the planning team to think creatively and not to worry too much about the board's welter of regulations, Ms. Atwell said. But attitudes appeared to change, she said, after the board voted on Feb. 10 not to renew Mr. Fernandez's contract. Some school officials, she said, appeared to lose confidence that they would be rewarded for cooperating with the new schools. Ms. Atwell said she sensed the change in two meetings -- before and after Mr. Fernandez's ouster -- with Carmen Varela-Russo, the chief executive of the board's high school division, and John J. Ferrandino, the division's superintendent of operations, both of whom have worked hard to open the new schools. In the first meeting on Jan. 6, the two officials voiced only approval, Ms. Atwell said. "There was a genuine sense that our visions were to be supported," she said. At the second meeting, on Feb. 23, the two officials insisted on changes in the academy's plans for a school with 150 students divided equally among 7th, 8th and 9th grade classes. Instead, the officials urged that the academy's ninth-grade class be far larger -- they recommended 150 students -- in order to accommodate the board's own class formulas, Ms. Atwell said. Support Seen as Eroding "We reacted with dismay," she said, to see that so early in the project board officials were trying to undermine the small classes that were at the heart of the new schools. "We could see their support for our vision was eroding." Mr. Ferrandino recalled the meeting differently. "Carmen said the ideal starting point would be 150 9th grade students, but there was nothing written in stone," he said. He also said support for the new schools continued unabated at board headquarters since Mr. Fernandez's ouster. "We've tried to reach consensus with the community groups about how to open these schools, and there have been good communications," he said. "We're working evenings, weekends, whatever is necessary to get the job done." Mrs. Varela-Russo's suggestions, however, were adopted by the planning team, enlarging the |
623114_0 | Ulster Talks Are Moribund; Growing Violence Is Feared | Eight months after the suspension of the British-sponsored talks to end the civil strife in Northern Ireland, British and Irish officials say the negotiations to end the violence that has killed 3,066 people since 1969 are moribund and quite unlikely to resume this year. In Northern Ireland the attacks by the Roman Catholic Irish Republican Army and Protestant paramilitary groups continues, while the mood in Dublin, London and Belfast is of mistrust and ideological rigidity. But fear of increased violence is forcing the leaders on all sides to re-examine old solutions and consider relatively new ones. Support has been growing in important ways for Britain and Ireland to talk to Sinn Fein, the political arm of the I.R.A., even if the party still refuses to condemn I.R.A. violence. A senior British official said opposition was softening to a proposal by President Clinton to send a special envoy to the north. 'A Sense of Hopelessness' "Things are so bleak the politicians might be forced back to the talks," said Paul Arthur, a professor of politics at Ulster University in Belfast. "But there is a sense of hopelessness." The British-sponsored talks, which began early in 1991, involved officials of Britain and Ireland and the major Catholic and Protestant parties in the north, with the exception of Sinn Fein. The talks were to have dealt ultimately with the desire of the Protestant majority to remain part of Britain and Catholic hopes for a united Ireland. The talks achieved some symbolic advances, for example, when mainstream Protestant leaders went to Dublin for the first time since Ireland became independent and the island was partitioned in 1922. But they foundered on how power might be more equitably shared between the 975,000 Protestants and 650,000 Catholics in the north. A great many Protestants mistrust not only the Catholics and the Irish Government, but also the British Government. Many Catholics also mistrust the British and the Irish Governments, suspicious that Dublin pays lip service to a united Ireland but dreads the political consequences of absorbing nearly a million unwilling Protestants and the economic costs of taking over the north. The British mistrust the Irish Government, which constantly unfolds surprises, most recently a proposal by Foreign Minister Dick Spring that the two Governments consider joint sovereignty over the province, a notion instantly condemned by Prime Minister John Major. The Irish Republican Army and Sinn Fein trust no one, |
624693_1 | Market Place; When Free Marketers Turn Their Faith Over To Central Planners. | performance in share price. Shares have slid since the first day after hitting a high of $18.75. The shares closed yesterday at $12.875, down almost 30 percent from their high. What happened? Some bulls argue that the share price is just under pressure from the flippers, who profit by purchasing pieces of new offerings and flip them back into the public markets once the price goes up. (Of course, the price stopped going up the first day of trading, but never mind that.) Instead, the trading history of China Tire points up the dangers of what can happen when free marketers turn their faith over to central planners. On July 18, The China Daily, an official Chinese newspaper, reported that the Government had imposed tighter controls on institutional purchases of autos as part of Beijing's new austerity plan. The result, the newspaper said, was that vehicle prices were declining while inventories were rising rapidly at auto makers, where inventories were up as much as 40 percent at the end of May from a year earlier. A glut of cars usually translates into lower production. And lower production means less demand for tires. In any language, that means that now may not be the best time to hold a tire maker's stock. Worse, it means that the big customers for China Tire are likely to start experiencing a financial squeeze, and they have been far from eager in the past about paying their bills. In its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, China Tire noted that a collection problem resulted in a significant charge to 1991 earnings. "Steps by the Chinese Government to control inflation," the company writes in a phrase that describes exactly what China Daily reported, "may increase the liquidity problems of the operating subsidiaries' customers." And China Tire is not the only company in this giant market. As the Chinese industrial market opens up, more foreign competitors are likely to join the more than 100 tire manufacturers already in the industry. In fact, so many companies are competing to jump into the tire market that even Communist officials have recognized what seems to have escaped some investors: When lots of companies are producing tires, soon there are too many of them. "Chinese Government officials have indicated that, as tire producers expand, tire production capacity in China may exceed domestic supply," China Motorcycle says in its S.E.C. filing. |
624706_2 | Wheelchair Warrior Lays Siege to Schools | the disabled, from how far water fountains should be lowered to where signs for the visually impaired should be installed. "The parents of disabled children are increasing their demands to an outrageous extent," said Gwendolyn Gregory, deputy general counsel for the National School Boards Association. "They are asking for things that parents of nonhandicapped children would have no right to ask for." School districts say that they are not opposed to serving disabled children, but that parents often demand that a neighborhood school be outfitted to accommodate the handicapped when a school 20 minutes away has the very program a student needs. Parents say it is a matter of perspective. "Like other minority groups, we get tired of listening to bureaucrats rationalizing what they do to us," said Linda DiCecco, a Warwick mother who is hearing impaired and who has three children with hearing or vision difficulties. "All we want are the same rights that the majority takes for granted." Of Mr. Solas, she said, "At least Greg is getting us into the school buildings." Vow to Help Handicapped Mr. Solas, who has long been criticized as a grandstander, shrugs off the criticism. "The law is the law," he said. "If I could, I would make them stand at a chalkboard and write, 'I will not discriminate.' " Mr. Solas was injured at a construction site seven years ago when a steel beam fell off its wooden piles and pinned him to the ground at the hips. As he lay beneath the beam, he says, his legs crushed, not sure whether he would even live, he vowed, "I'll help the handicapped." In 1990, he took on the Warwick Public Schools, a system of 28,000 students, 1,800 with physical or learning disabilities. He remembers being unable to negotiate the entrance of an elementary school where the parent-teacher organization meeting was held. He says he was told to go home; the district would send him a videotape of the meeting. "All of a sudden, I was a guy who was a pain in their behinds," he said. Mr. Solas said he refused the videotape and instead staged a one-person picket outside the school administration building during a late-winter storm. He ultimately filed a complaint with the Education Department, which forced the school system to renovate its administration building. The parents' group finally moved its meeting to a site more suitable for Mr. |
620574_0 | It's Johnson Against Reynolds, With the 400 Mark in Danger | Michael Johnson, two sprinters in one, has rebounded from the ignominy of Olympic failure by taking charge of the 400 meters and making it this year's marquee event in track and field. Johnson won the national title three weeks ago in Eugene, Ore., in 43.74 seconds, the fastest 400 ever run in the United States. He defeated Quincy Watts, the 1992 Olympic champion, and Butch Reynolds, the world record-holder (43.29). Primarily a 200-meter runner, the 25-year-old Johnson switched events because of a hamstring injury that curtailed his training. Now, back in the international spotlight, Johnson has elevated tonight's 400 at the Bislett Games in Oslo to the status of the Dream Mile. He will face Reynolds in a rematch. It may take a world record to win. Bislett is considered the premier meet on the Mobil Grand Prix circuit. The Dream Mile features world 1,500-meter record-holder Noureddine Morceli of Algeria, world-mile record-holder Steve Cram of Britain and Fermin Cacho of Spain, the 1992 Olympic 1,500 champion. Khalid Skah of Morocco will be seeking a world record in the 5,000. Yobes Ondieki of Kenya will chase the world record in the 10,000. But for a head-to-head showdown with record possibilities, the 400 has created the main interest. Johnson was not in peak form when he ran 43.74. It was only his second 400 of the season. "I was a few weeks behind schedule," said Johnson. "I had barely done any speed training." Both Johnson and Reynolds, second in Eugene in 44.12, felt the added pressure of earning berths on the United States team for this year's world championships( Aug. 14-22) in Stuttgart, Germany. For each athlete, qualifying was a make-or-break necessity with career implications. Last year in Barcelona, Spain, Johnson was favored to capture the gold medal in the 200. But a bout with food-poisoning three weeks before the Games weakened him and he didn't even make the finals. Despite the illness, observers still wondered if Johnson folded under the burden of favorite status. Reynolds, 29, was denied world and Olympic opportunities the past two years because of his ongoing eligibility dispute with the international authorities over a 1989 drug test. In the 400, Johnson has won 23 straight races and has not been beaten in five years. He said he feels more comfortable running the longer distance. "The 200 is more intense," he said. "There is less margin for error." |
625231_2 | South Africa in the Open | black communities. Of all those victims, according to a statistic the police will provide on request but do not publish, 630 were white. A white South African's chances of being killed last year were one in 8,000, about double the risk faced by white Americans. A black South African's chances of being killed were one in 1,400. For whites who can recall when their skin was all the protection they needed, though, the trend is amply alarming. Freighted with Vengeance Not only is crime growing in general, but when it does penetrate white enclaves, it is often gratuitously brutal, as if freighted with a measure of racial vengeance. Moreover, South Africa is so thick with guns that minor crimes are often lethal. Automatics are pouring in from demobilized warriors in Mozambique, military weapons are turning up from pilfered arsenals, and the nation has a plethora of over-the-counter shotguns and pistols. Burglars arrive bearing AK-47 assault rifles, possibly assuming that their victims will also be heavily armed. The assault on the church in Cape Town, Mr. Simpson observed, was a style of killing associated with the townships. The killers burst upon the crowded church in midservice and sprayed the congregation indiscriminately with automatic rifle fire and hand grenades. In townships, churches have not been attacked, but funeral vigils are a favorite target of terror, and the tactics are often identical. Growing Violence Miss King said the brutality of the Cape Town attack parallels a development in the black townships: in recent months, for reasons no one can explain, the violence has grown more horrifying. There has been a resurgence of the most gruesome kinds of killing -- hacking with machetes and "necklacing" with gasoline-soaked tires set alight. The whites' fear worries many black leaders as well. While they may see justice in whites tasting the routine fear of township life, they realize that governing South Africa will be far more difficult if whites withdraw their wealth, run away or resist. Nelson Mandela, the African National Congress president, has repeatedly implored whites not to flee the country. His organization has promised to begin its own search for the church killers. "We are all in the same boat, and the name of the boat is South Africa," said Tokyo Sexwale, chairman of the congress's Johannesburg region. As Mr. Simpson points out, the African National Congress is engaged in a political negotiation that depends |
625227_1 | Vacationers Go Undercover at Sea to Film Dumping | be dumped, and no dumping may take place within 12 nautical miles of shore. Until recently, cases were nearly impossible to prosecute because of lack of evidence. But public concern over the environment is playing a role in the increased reporting of illegal dumping, said Heidi Lovett, a spokesman with the Florida offices of the Center for Marine Conservation, an environmental organization based in Washington. "People want to see recycling inside ships," she said. "They are doing it in their offices and at home and they think that cruises can do the same." At the same time, the Coast Guard has toughened its enforcement of ocean dumping by asserting the right to prosecute any violation within the United States's exclusive economic zone, which is 200 nautical miles from shore. Before last fall, the United States would refer any violation in the high seas -- outside the three-nautical-mile zone of territorial waters -- to the ship's country of registry, often Panama or Liberia. In most cases, those countries took no action. To enlist the help of passengers in its crackdown, the Coast Guard set up a toll-free number for those who wish to report violations. It refers cases of suspected illegal dumping to United States Attorneys' offices. In one case under investigation, Cindy Swoope of Gloucester, Va., a passenger on the Dolphin Cruise Lines's Sea Breeze, videotaped several instances of dumping last May. Ms. Swoope had seen a television program showing such videotaped dumping, so she decided to take her own camera. At 3 A.M. on May 5, Ms. Swoope said in a recent interview, she and a friend took a walk around the ship's pool and heard a bang. They walked toward the noise and, as they told the United States Attorney's office in Miami, saw crew members throwing six white plastic bags into the sea as well as glass bottles. She got her camera and began videotaping. When she disembarked, she turned the tape over to agents from the Attorney's office, who flew from Miami to Virginia to interview her. A vice president of Dolphin Cruise Line, John Markakis, said in a recent interview that an internal company investigation had disproved Ms. Swoope's accusations, though he conceded that he had not seen the tape. "The vessels don't have a need to dispose of waste in an illegal way because the ships have shredders to process food waste and compactors |
625212_2 | Pachmarhi Journal; The Hills Are Still Alive, but Face New Intruders | state. When the practice of changing the capital in summer ended, the effect was most obvious on the sprawling mansions built for top officials. The ballrooms and dining rooms that once echoed to dances and dinners under the British are empty except for occasional visitors. In fact, the ballroom at the Governor's House is used as a badminton court. Yet a little army of workers continues to take care of the extensive lawns, gardens and sprawling wooden buildings, some of which are more than 100 years old. There is even a law to preserve Pachmarhi's integrity and stop a flood of real estate developers from rushing in with expensive hotels and apartments. This has caused resentment among hoteliers and middle-class people, many of whom lease rooms in their homes in the summer. "People want to increase their incomes," said Mohammad Shafi, a government engineer. "But we also have to see whether we can balance this with environmental care." One of those who has been working to save the place from the pressures of development is Avineesh Singh, a government official who runs an institute that trains villagers to fight for their rights and carry out government-aided projects. Mr. Singh said one of the casualties of the sudden new inflow is a heritage that is thousands of years older than the British legacy. Ancient Painted Scenes In rock shelters and caves not far from the town, ancient tribespeople painted scenes from their daily lives, of battles and of community gatherings. The paintings comprise white skeletal figures carrying bows and arrows, spears and pots. "These are as old as 5,000 to 10,000 years old," Mr. Singh said. The Pachmarhi region was originally peopled by indigenous tribes known as the Gonds before the British came about 130 years ago. Many tribespeople still live in the hills. Recently, Mr. Singh says he has noticed that paintings have been cut out of the rock faces and are missing. "They must be smuggled out," he said. "We don't know who is doing it, but a priceless heritage is at risk, and no one is doing anything about it." As he spoke, the bells of a church chimed in the distance. There are two large churches in Pachmarhi, both built by the British, although the Protestant one, at 110 years, is older than the Roman Catholic church. In the Protestant church, the Rev. Benjamin Lal lovingly pulled |
619182_2 | Pope Issues Censure Of 'Nature Worship' Among U.S. Women | not to disrupt the busy schedule, during which he met with the American bishops and used the occasion to mention the Vatican's conflict with some American Catholic feminists. The Vatican's differences with American Catholics -- feminists and others -- cover an array of issues ranging from the ordination of women as priests to the nature of the divine being. The Vatican rejects the idea of women being ordained as priests on the grounds that Jesus chose only men as apostles. By contrast, opinion surveys have shown that up to two-thirds of Catholics in the United States are in favor of women becoming priests. And in recent years, some of the Vatican's most senior cardinals have expressed concern about worship of such concepts as the earth goddess by some feminist American Catholics, saying the practice creates an unacceptable blend of Catholicism with animist faith. Conservative American clerics have even suggested that such worship veers toward witchcraft. The Pope regularly assails what the church calls syncretism -- the dilution of Catholicism with other faiths -- during his visits to third-world congregations, but it seemed unusual for him to make the same criticism of American groups that are regarded as being on the fringes of religious feminism. "The Pope may be reacting to American Catholic critics of feminism who have read some of its most extreme statements and then define all Catholic feminism in terms of those extremes," said Mary Jo Weaver, a professor of religious studies at Indiana University and the author of "New Catholic Women" (Harper, 1985) and other studies of Catholic feminists. Term Applied to Wide Spectrum Many practicing Catholics favor ordination of women and the inclusion of feminine language for God in the liturgy. They may be distressed by church policies but do not share the views of prominent Catholic feminist scholars who express stringent, sometimes quite radical criticism of traditional interpretations of Bible texts or masculine concepts of God. Some of these scholars have called for greater appreciation of the religious values contained in nature religions or ancient cults of goddesses. But Dr. Weaver said that only a very small group of Catholic women actively took part in prayer rituals invoking female deities or deliberately conceived as alternatives to traditional Catholic worship. The term feminism is often applied by church authorities to this entire spectrum of attitudes without distinctions, she said. The Pope said today that the Vatican |
619151_0 | Aid for Owls, Trees and Loggers | President Clinton's plan to manage and protect 800-year-old forests and spotted owls in the Northwest won't end the tension between loggers and environmentalists, but he has taken a giant step in the right direction. He shields not just a bird, but a rich, irreplaceable ecosystem of timber, water, fish and fowl, while still permitting sustainable logging. The President offers a reasonable compromise. He would allow logging that environmental absolutists prefer to ban outright, but would set tight limits that timber interests misrepresent as ruinous. The issue was joined two years ago when a Federal judge in Seattle ruled that rapid cutting on lands controlled by the Forest Service violated the nation's environmental laws. He ordered cutting halted until the Government devised protections; the Clinton plan is subject to his approval. The most striking feature of the President's proposal is its sharply reduced ceiling on logging in the affected forests. It allows less than one-third as much cutting over all as in the 1980's, with tight control in designated areas of old growth. Loggers will protest the rollback, with the outspoken support of House Speaker Tom Foley, who hails from the state of Washington. But cutting could not have continued at the earlier pace; sooner or later there would have been nothing left to cut. While the industry and its workers blame Government curbs for their troubles, there are at least three other factors -- automation, Southeastern timber development and subsidized exports of logs for finishing in foreign mills. (Mr. Clinton sensibly wants to end those subsidies.) To compensate for the inevitable loss of work under new logging limits, the President offers retraining and new jobs in forest preservation, plus economic aid for affected communities. With impressive foresight, the Clinton plan also seeks to head off future trouble by concentrating on watershed areas; preservation of streams and rivers as well as the surrounding forest should prevent new crises over fish and wildlife and, not incidentally, keep water supplies clean. In addition, 10 areas are to be designated for joint experimentation by local interests and the Government, looking for better methods of logging and preservation. Closer inspection and judicial review of Mr. Clinton's plan will doubtless raise challenges to its particulars. For now, credit the Administration for serious effort to resolve a troublesome conflict. |
619517_0 | Where the Emphasis Is Italian | THE spotlight of Newark's International Cultural Festival is now on Italy, and for an exhibition at the Public Library here, William Dane and Charles Cummings have joined forces. Keeper of prints for special collections and assistant director of the same department, respectively, the two scholars have combed the library's holdings for things Italian. They have also received a number of contributions from enthusiastic local residents. The result is a show in two parts, "Milestones in Italian Culture," on the third floor, and "Reflections," on the second. It is also a case of information overload. As the curators themselves ask in the catalogue, "in a few running feet how is it possible to acknowledge the Etruscans, the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire, the Medieval period of city-states, the Early, Middle and High Renaissance, the Baroque era," not to mention the political turmoil of the 19th century and the cultural explosion of the 20th? And, of course, this does not begin to be possible, even if the design of the library, as the writers point out, is "precisely based on Italian Renaissance models." Though they took the wiser course of concentrating on the Italian presence in Newark, there was evidently no avoiding the homeland that came with the immigrants, whether they expressed it through their formidable building skills or their way with food. Included in "Milestones" is a page copied from the Vulgate, a Latin version of the Bible prepared by St. Jerome for the fourth-century Pope St. Damasus. Apart from anything else, this superb piece of calligraphy, with initials in blue and cinnabar red, goes a long way to explaining William Morris's infatuation with medieval ornament. From the 18th century come Piranesi's straightforward etchings of the Coliseum, St. Peter's and the Pantheon, as well as a portrait of the artist at the age of 30, done by someone else. Then there is a lithograph of Pisa, as it was in the Middle Ages teeming with towers, none of them leaning but, as the caption says, all good for pouring boiling oil on those who would attack them. The city was Manhattan ahead of its time. The Umbrian town of Baschi, in Bruno Croatto's 1875 etching, reproduced on this page, was more the traditional European settlement with a single tower -- the one on the church. While everyone knows that Italy can rest on the achievements of its Renaissance and Baroque masters |
619214_1 | Cuba Cutting Direct Phone Service From U.S. | the number of calls from the United States that are routed through Canada, which allows Cuba to share the revenue. Because of the United States trade embargo on Cuba, revenue from telephone calls placed through the American Telephone and Telegraph Company is not shared with Cuba. But Canada has maintained trade relations with Cuba, and there are no restrictions on sharing the profits of calls from the United States that are routed through Canada. Calls through Canada are three to seven times as expensive as calls place through A.T.& T. Cuba's action drew immediate criticism from Clinton Administration officials and lawmakers. "The Cuba Government is profiting off the public in the exile community, who will pay any price to keep in contact with relatives and friends on the island," said Representative Robert G. Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat. Possible Violation of Embargo An Administration official said the Treasury Department had been asked to look into the possibility that routing calls through Canada violated the embargo because the calls are paid for by United States residents. A spokesman for the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control would not say whether such an investigation was taking place. Thomas S. Cavanagh, the A.T.& T. executive in charge of service to Cuba, said a called in the United States paid about a dollar a minute for each call placed through his company. The company and the Cuban Government split the proceeds about equally, but because of the embargo, A.T.& T. is must put Cuba's share into an escrow account. That account, established in 1966, totals more than $80 million. Company officials said the sharp reduction in the number of A.T.& T. calls has forced them to phase out 220 jobs at their international operating center in Pittsburgh. In recent years, the company has been losing Cuba business to "re-sellers," which provide an international "800" number that customers call when they want to place a call to Cuba. Mr. Cavanagh said the re-sellers, which route calls through Canada, generally charged $3.50 to $7 a minute. Possible Change by Washington The Administration is considering a plan to increase the number of calls to Cuba as a means of undercutting President Fidel Castro's assertions that trade sanctions are directed at the Cuban people, not at his Government. One option would allow A.T.& T. and other American companies to share revenue from the calls with the Cuban Government. |
619551_6 | Boom in Boating Crowds the Summer Sea | Standards This spring, the National Transportation Safety Board urged the states to enact uniform pleasure-boating standards to reduce the number and severity of accidents. It recommended the mandatory use of life jackets or similar equipment for children, tougher laws on alcohol consumption while operating a boat and adult boat safety education. The extent of alcohol use in recreational boating "cannot be adequately documented," the safety board said, because states vary on the compilation of information. In a study of fatalities the board estimated that "at least 37 percent" of boat operators involved in fatal accidents have some alcohol in their systems. The issue attracted widespread attention three months ago when two Cleveland Indians pitchers, Steve Olin and Tim Crews, were killed when their 18-foot boat hit a dock on a lake near Orlando, Fla. Investigators later determined that Mr. Crews, the driver, was legally intoxicated. New Jersey and Connecticut have no requirements about life jackets for children; New York requires children under 12 to wear them on boats less than 26 feet long. New York recently joined New Jersey in adopting a requirement that boat operators consent to alcohol impairment tests or face loss of boating privileges. Connecticut has no such requirement. But no matter what laws are in place, officials say that resources for enforcement are so small that violations usually go unnoticed. The Coast Guard, whose chief mission is search and rescue, works closely with the states within the three-mile continental limits and tidal areas, and Federal money augments state patrol expenditures in lean economic times. In New Jersey, budget constraints have cut the Marine Police to 150 officers, who patrol the state's lakes and waterways, including 127 miles of Atlantic coastline and 1,750 miles of interior tidal shoreline. The officers are also responsible for pollution control and anti-narcotics policing. "We just don't have the manpower to cover our beat," said Sergeant Herkloz. Few Patrols Federal money earmarked for overtime pay will help beef up patrols this summer, said Captain Gronikowsky, the Marine Police supervisor in Trenton. But last weekend, on a beautiful day that produced heavy boat traffic, only one 20-foot patrol boat with two officers was on duty between Shark River in Monmouth County and Island Beach State Park in Ocean County. The same goes for some areas of New York State, Mr. Potter said. "Whole stretches of the Hudson River are not covered," he said. |
619476_8 | In East Europe, Minimalism Meets Mysticism | as a constant struggle. "I feel distanced from my early work," he said. "It's as if it's by another person. I don't own a computer, but there is a computer in my mind and heart. I don't call my music computer music, but it is strict music. One could call it formal music, very exact. "I'm in search of what has meaning for me. Sometimes I'm nearer, sometimes farther away. Sometimes it's like clean air, and one can see far, but sometimes it's cloudy. It's a living process." TO HEAR WHAT ALL THE FUSS IS ABOUT Here are selected recordings of music by Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki and Arvo Part. GORECKI * Symphony No. 3, with Dawn Upshaw, and David Zinman conducting the London Sinfonietta (Elektra Nonesuch 79282; CD and cassette). This is the one that has caused all the fuss, and it's a fine performance. But prospective buyers should also consider the version on Olympia (OCD 313; CD), which offers a lusher orchestral sound and two other attractive Gorecki scores. * String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2, with the Kronos Quartet (Elektra Nonesuch 79319; CD and cassette). Harsher, more despairing music than the Third Symphony. The same performance of the First Quartet is on another Nonesuch disk (79257; CD and cassette), coupled with the fierce "Lerchenmusik" for clarinet, cello and piano. * "Beatus Vir" and other choral music, with John Nelson conducting the Prague Philharmonic Choir and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (Argo 436 835-2; CD). Sacred music, and hence as close as Mr. Gorecki comes to Mr. Part's inherently religious style. * "The Essential Gorecki" (Olympia OCD 385; CD). A misnomer: This is music from before the Third Symphony, as selected by the composer for reissue now. PART * "Tabula Rasa," with Keith Jarrett, Gidon Kremer and Dennis Russell Davies (ECM 817 764; CD and cassette). The disk that called the world's attention to Mr. Part's music; a fine and varied introduction. * "Arbos," with Mr. Kremer, Mr. Davies and the Hilliard Ensemble (ECM 831 959; CD and cassette). A good follow-up to "Tabula Rasa." * "Passio" (or the "St. John Passion"), with Paul Hillier conducting the Hilliard Ensemble and Western Wind Chamber Choir (ECM 837 109; CD and cassette). An eerie, dreamy, rapturous and involving oratorio. * Cello Concerto, "Perpetuum Mobile," Symphonies Nos. 1-3, with Neemi Jarvi conducting the Bamberg Symphony (Bis 434; CD). Music from the 1960's. CLASSICAL MUSIC |
619332_0 | France and Its Farmers Are in No Mood for Compromise | GATT has become a four-letter word in France, where any world trade agreement is widely viewed as threatening the livelihood of farmers, exporting jobs to developing countries where labor is cheaper, and caving to pressure from the United States. With more than three million unemployed, the economy in recession and further job losses expected this year, the three-month-old conservative Government of Edouard Balladur is acutely aware that any trade concessions could be politically costly. France therefore opposes even a limited agreement in Tokyo. The Government wants world leaders to give more attention to exchange-rate issues. It contends that French export industries are penalized because the dollar is undervalued by at least 20 percent against the French franc and the German mark. With a big and technologically advanced nuclear industry, France would like firm agreements on eliminating dangerous nuclear reactors in the former East bloc. Its goal is not limited to nuclear safety;, lucrative contracts could follow. As for aid to Mr. Yeltsin, France wants him to bring Russia's free-spending central bank to heel before the money flows. Like other Western European countries, France sees Japan's trade surplus as excessive. But it believes that pressure on this issue is useless because of political uncertainty in Tokyo. 7 RICH NATIONS EXPECTING LITTLE AT TOKYO TALKS: FRANCE |
619544_0 | NEWS SUMMARY | International 3-13 AGREEMENT BY HAITIANS Haiti's Army commander and the ousted President, the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, signed an accord that returns him to power. 1 Haitians are skeptical as they follow news of an accord. 12 DOUBTS ON SUMMIT PROGRESS There are doubts that the world's seven richest nations will make much progress at their Tokyo meeting because of slow economic growth, high unemployment and trade disputes. 1 Boris Yeltsin will report good economic news for Russia. 7 CUBAN MYSTERY ILLNESS EBBING An epidemic of a mysterious illness that has afflicted more than 46,000 Cubans apparently has peaked, with a decline in the number of new cases reported in the last month. 12 Cuba, to save money, is reducing direct phone calls from the U.S. 13 EVANGELICALS CATCH ON IN BRAZIL Evangelical Protestantism is catching on in Brazil, growing enormously in recent years while the percentage of Brazilians who identify themselves as Catholics falls. 1 NEW THREAT TO BOSNIA MUSLIMS Nationalist Serbs and Croats in Bosnia have been emboldened by Washington's decision not to intervene militarily, and they are pushing forward in "ethnic cleansing" of Bosnia's Muslims. 8 War is thrusting a wedge between Serbia and Montenegro. 8 Remote Chinese villagers keep a wary eye on Beijing. 3 Clinton urges a test moratorium on other nuclear powers. 9 Mandela explains why he is accepting a joint medal with de Klerk. 10 At their trial, 6 Arabs deny a role in any Bush assassination plot. 11 National 14-20 KEEPING VERMONT'S HISTORY ALIVE A recent designation of Vermont as one of America's 11 most "endangered historic places" brings up the age old question: should Vermont be quaint forever? 14 FLORIDA PANEL'S SECRET INQUIRIES The release of secret documents last week shed new light on a Florida legislative panel that waged an assault on suspected communists and others for nine years. 14 SCHOLARS FIND LINCOLN'S PAPERS Three scholars of Abraham Lincoln have discovered a cache of 34 legal documents, overlooked for nearly a century and a half, in the basement of an Illinois courthouse. 14 FLOOD WON'T STOP TWAIN FESTIVAL The National Tom Sawyer Days began as always in Hannibal, Mo., even as the Mississippi River strained at flood walls and the sandbags that residents have stacked all week. 18 WASTE PLANT OWNERS IN VIOLATION The Ohio Environmental Protection agency ruled that current owners of the nation's newest hazardous waste plant violated state |
619374_0 | By Windjammer | To the Editor: Your article "By Windjammer Around Penobscot Bay" (May 23) brought back fond memories of what was called a "dude cruise" that I joined over 50 years ago. In September 1939, I spent a delightful six days aboard a 64-foot gaff-rigged 19th-century converted fishing schooner. The amenities were minimal: no running water, no electricity and only wind for power. Fresh water was available on deck in two large barrels and each of the 16 dudes was issued a 10-inch basin with dipper. All washing was done on deck out of the basin or in the bay. The three daily meals were plentiful and delicious; we could work or not depending on what one wished to learn about sailing. Nobody checked out early and at least three of us stayed for another six-day cruise. Total cost for a six-day cruise: $35. Eat your heart out, but thanks for bringing back the memories. GERALD BRANOWER New York, N.Y. |
619542_0 | Indian Point 3 on Federal Watch List | THE Nuclear Regulatory Commission has added the Indian Point 3 installation here to its list of problem-plagued plants. The Federal regulatory commission on June 22 cited a problem with declining performance at Indian Point 3 and its August 1992 report card on the 17-year-old plant, which showed inadequate management controls. "What this means is that we're going to spend extra resources and send extra inspectors to keep an eye on the place," said Diane Screnci, a spokeswoman for the commission's Region 1 office, which covers the Northeast. Indian Point 3 is owned and operated by the New York Power Authority, the largest non-Federal public power agency, which supplies electricity to government customers in Westchester and New York City. 109 Nuclear Plants Operating Indian Point 3 is considered an average-size installation, producing 980 megawatts of power, compared with newer plants, like Palo Verde near Phoenix, which produce about 1,300 megawatts, Ms. Screnci said. One of the country's oldest plants, Yankee Rowe, in Rowe, Mass., produced 175 watts but was shut down last year after operating for 30 years after questions arose about the stability of its reactor vessel. In all, there are 109 operating plants in the United States licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In a June 22 letter to Richard M. Flynn, chairman of the board of trustees of the New York Power Authority, the Federal commission said that both plants operated by the authority -- Indian Point 3 and the James A. FitzPatrick, in Oswego -- required close monitoring. The Oswego plant has been on the commission's watch list since February, 1992, although the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has acknowledged improvements made there since that time. The commissions letter said that a licensee performance assessment in August showed "declining performance in operations, maintenance and surveillance, emergency preparations, safety assessment and quality verification, and most notable, engineering and technical support," at Indian Point 3. The major contributors to the declining performance, the letter said, were ineffective review and correction of problems by management and an increasing number of plant deficiencies. The Federal commission fined the power authority $462,500 last year for a series of violations, the largest amount paid that year by any of the 31 nuclear plants in Region 1, Ms. Screnci said. At least for now, however, there is no question about Indian Point 3's being closed by the commission, she said. "If we didn't believe they could |
619529_8 | Stockholm | been renovated, with an airy, marble-floored lobby and 241 Art Deco rooms. A double comes to $150 ($100). Hotel Anno 1647 is a friendly, small hotel at 3 Mariagrand, 644 04 80, fax 643 37 00, in a cul-de-sac on the South Side. There are three ground-floor rooms for those who can't face the stairs (there's no elevator). The 42 rooms are Spartan but attractively furnished. A double room: $159 ($97). Budget: Queen's Hotel, 71A Drottninggatan, 24 94 60, fax 21 76 20, has 30 high-ceilinged rooms on three floors in an old, centrally situated apartment house. The lobby, with a grand piano, looks like a living room in a Bergman movie. There are irons and ironing boards in all rooms. A double with toilet and shower (there are some without) is $117 ($80). Luxury: The 138-room SAS Strand, Nybrokajen 9, 678 78 00, fax 611 24 36, is ideal for exploring the city, and sightseeing boats are two minutes away. Doubles begin at $255 ($136.50). Shopping The grand old department store NK, Hamngatan 18-20, 762 80 00, which consists of separate departments grouped around a vast atrium, offers the best that Sweden produces. NK is open weekdays 10 A.M. to 7 P.M., Saturday to 5 P.M. and Sunday from noon to 4 P.M. Sturegallerian is an upmarket shopping mall at Stureplan in the center of town. There are close to 50 boutiques and shops, two popular restaurants (Sturehof and Sture-Compagniet) and a health club. One shop, Galerie Bjorn Weckstrom (611 39 39), sells modern, sculptured jewelry handmade in Finland. A silver necklace, for instance, comes to $550. Another Finn in the same mall is Pertti Palmroth (678 63 20), whose popular suede shoes for women cost $100. Svenskt Glas (Swedish Glass) at Birger Jarlsgatan 8 (679 79 09) specializes in art glass, both from old established glassworks like Orrefors and from young, exciting designers like Wilke (a stunning, intensely blue plate is $260) and Berit Johansson, whose colorful vases fetch about $995. Slottsbodarna (The Royal Gift Shop) is at Stockholm's most exclusive address: the Royal Palace (789 86 30). Items on display include decanters ($52.40) and cuff links (from $39.30), all associated with the royal collections. Proceeds go to the royal museums. Open Monday through Friday 10:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M., weekends 11 A.M. to 3 P.M. WHAT'S DOING IN ERIC SJOGREN is a Swedish journalist living in Brussels. |
621974_4 | A Recovery That's Too Weak Results in Too Few New Jobs | economic growth remains the priority. Their insistence on linking weak job growth with weak economic growth could focus more attention on the Administration's current economic policy. The White House is relying on low interest rates as the principal incentive to get consumers and companies to borrow and spend, hoping the rates will be sufficient to lift the economy enough to create jobs. Administration officials say there is more lift to be gained from low rates than has been evident so far. But not everyone agrees that low rates alone will do the job. "I think that you can get some economic growth from lower rates, but there is an important distinction to be made," Mr. Solow said. "If rates fall because business is pessimistic, that does not help the economy, and that seems to be happening now. I think we could get some contribution to growth by an aggressive lowering of rates, but not enough to really get the economy going." Once that does happen, education, job training and similar work force improvements may help to bring jobs back quickly. Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich notes that workers who are college educated and highly skilled are more likely, at any level of economic growth, to get jobs than the less skilled and less educated. But in an anemic economy, the educated can also go jobless, and that has been happening, according to several studies. Cost of Labor Then there is the impediment posed by labor costs. Mr. Jasinowski of the manufacturers' association argues that complying with an array of Federal regulations is costing manufacturers $100 billion a year, absorbing revenue that might otherwise have been spent on new employees. "You get these quite large numbers and people say, 'I don't want to hire people; I will do without,' " Mr. Jasinowski said. Others respond, however, that if sales were growing more strongly, companies would be more willing to hire despite the regulatory costs. Corporate executives also cite the higher costs of benefits, at a time when wages are essentially flat, as a barrier to hiring. That has encouraged managers who might have otherwise hired to resort to overtime or temporary workers. Both approaches eliminate the cost of benefits. Europe's High Labor Costs Expensive social benefits are also a drag on job growth in Western Europe. Stronger unions, higher payroll taxes and numerous regulations that prevent layoffs have made many European |
622016_0 | China Backs Off Halting Ships Owned by Russia | The Government apologized today for two recent incidents in which Chinese patrol boats seized Russian vessels in international waters, and it pledged to take steps to avoid further such confrontations. The authorities still have not explained the attack this week on a North Korean cargo ship that had left Hong Kong and was steaming toward its home port. The North Korean ship was reportedly raked with machine-gun fire and boarded, but it is unclear whether those responsible were pirates or Chinese naval officials -- or if they were one and the same. In a growing number of episodes in the last couple of years, local Chinese police and naval patrols, particularly in southern China, have attacked or detained foreign ships on the high seas or in Hong Kong waters. Vietnamese ships have been particularly vulnerable to being seized while returning from Hong Kong to Vietnam, and they are often detained and forced to pay fines or forfeit their cargoes. Suspicion of Smuggling Chinese Government patrol boats are often involved, and frequently the reason -- at least when the searches are conducted in Chinese waters -- appears to be genuine suspicion that the ships are smuggling cars or other goods into China. Such smuggling is widespread, although the Chinese Navy and border police themselves seem to play a significant role in it. On other occasions, the motivation for seizing the ships reportedly is simply the hope of extracting a ransom, even if the cargo is legitimate. Simple piracy also occurs, with cargo and money looted on the high seas. Suspicion is sometimes directed at Chinese naval officers and security officials, in part because they have access to the machine guns and fast launches that are used in such raids. The Government's apology today came in the form of a statement by the official New China News Agency, which referred to the detention only of Russian vessels. But the unusual report suggested that the Government is concerned about the issue and trying to correct it. China Apologized Describing one episode, the statement said that on June 9 a Chinese antismuggling patrol had escorted a Russian ship from the high seas into a nearby harbor "for investigation." "The vessel was released June 12 after it was determined that it was not involved in contraband," the report said. It added that China had apologized to Russia for the detention. Then on July 7, the |
623757_3 | The Cannibals Have Got Potential | threads, as in this sentence about "The Odyssey": "Great dramatic moments, a one-eyed giant, cannibals, even some drugs, but nothing illegal, because as far as I know the lotus isn't on the Narcotics Bureau's list." This laboriousness is paradoxically mitigated by extension in a couple of longer pieces. "Industry and Sexual Repression in a Po Valley Society" is a patient study of contemporary Milan, in the voice of a Melanesian anthropologist, grateful for "a travel grant of 24,000 dog's teeth." There are no thematic surprises: Milan seems hard to live in, though the nature of the observer determines the observations. Along the way there are engaging parodies of historical materialism and existential psychology, which when translated in the 1960's was often laden with hyphenated concepts-in-the-state-of-attempting-nounhood. "The End Is at Hand" views with alarm the decadence of classical Athenian society, as manifested, for example, in the work of Sophocles, who has diluted tragedy by adding painted scenery and the third actor. The piece bristles with footnotes, several of which are quite accurate citations of Aristotle, Thucydides and others. Now and then, though, a quotation from one of these sources is given a paranoiac twist. This is how Rex Warner's translation of Thucydides has Pericles characterize Athenians' attitude toward law: "We obey the laws themselves, especially those which are for the protection of the oppressed, and those unwritten laws which it is an acknowledged shame to break." The Eco-Weaver rendition of this last clause is "particularly those laws that arouse the universal scorn of those who fail to follow them." Finally, several footnotes are left in pseudo-Greek: a Greek-alphabet transliteration of journalistic sources, most often the newspaper Corriere Della Sera. The satirist is at his best parodying relentlessly grim analyses of popular culture. "The Phenomenology of Mike Bongiorno" has a translator's note explaining that Bongiorno is a television game-show host in Italy, but the type is universal, and the essay is almost frightening in its conviction that Bongiorno is a genius for our time. As Mr. Eco says, "If its aim is true, [ parody ] simply heralds what others will later produce, unblushing, with impassive and assertive gravity." It may be that this has come to pass, and that among reactions to this book will be those of critics whose coming these bagatelles have foretold: "That's not funny, Umberto." Henry Taylor's latest book is "Compulsory Figures: Essays on Recent American Poets." |
623659_1 | Finish-Line Test for 'Running Doc' | years before his prostate cancer was diagnosed. The first time we met, a few hours before the 1968 Boston Marathon, he said he regarded the race as a Greek tragedy. "There is hubris and there is nemesis. The beginning of the course is downhill and everyone is charged up. They run too fast and their pride destroys them. By the time they reach the Newton Hills, they're walking." But he also had time to suggest that, based on my build, I might do well to keep swimming and cycling. If I did decide to jog, I should wear old Hush Puppies for starters instead of expensive Adidas, and drink lots of water, not soda or Gatorade. Such advice, since expanded and refined and thickened with anecdotes from millions of footsteps and quotes from the experiential philosophers, has appeared in Sheehan's weekly column in The Asbury Park Press and in the monthly magazine Runner's World and on into seven books including the best-selling "Running and Being" (Simon and Schuster) and the 1989 "Personal Best" (Rodale Press) in which he wrote: "If life is the big race, then each race is a separate life. Yesterday, for instance, I went through the continual and at times excruciating torment of racing 10 kilometers in Central Park. Every hill brought with it a little death, but then on the downhill came the rebirth -- the breath coming back, the pain receding, and the consciousness, which had been reduced to the length of a stride, now expanding to take in my fellow runners and this miracle of grass and trees in the middle of a city." By then he had found a "blessing" in his inoperable cancer -- "life as a gift" -- and, perhaps more poignantly, he had run through the aloneness and the self-absorption of his middle years to enjoy the acclaim of all those who were happy just running in his shadow. Sheehan discussed all this with his usual bemused interest. Sheehan is a student. He took medicine seriously, he took running seriously, and now he takes his impending death seriously. It is not clear how much time he has left. Weeks, months? "I am afraid of nothing," he said. "But I am disturbed that I can't run." The running actually began some 60 years ago. The oldest of fourteen children of a Brooklyn doctor, Sheehan ran at Manhattan College but gave it |
623692_7 | The Deadly Sins/Despair; The One Unforgivable Sin | vision of a debased 20th-century civilization, is secondhand. That this is a profound if dismaying truth, or an outrageous libel of the human spirit, either position to be confirmed by history, seems beside the point today, in a country in which politics has become the national religion. The literature of despair may posit suicide as a triumphant act of rebellion, or a repudiation of the meanness of life, but our contemporary mood is one of compassionate horror at any display of self-destruction. We perceive it, perhaps quite accurately, as misguided politics, as a failure to link in here with out there. For Americans, the collective belief, the moral imperative, is an unflagging optimism. We want to believe in the infinite elasticity of the future: what we can will, we can enact. Just give us time! -- and sufficient resources. Our ethos has always been hard-core pragmatism as defined by our most eminent philosopher, William James: truth is something that works. It is a vehicle empowered to carry us to our destination. Yet there remains a persistent counterimpulse, an irresistible tug toward stasis and toward those truths that, in Melville's words, will not be comforted. At the antipode of American exuberance and optimism there is the poet's small, still, private voice, the voice of individual conscience; the voice, for instance, of Dickinson, who, like Rainer Maria Rilke and Gerard Manley Hopkins, mined the ideal vocabulary for investigating those shifting, penumbral states of consciousness that do, in the long run, constitute our lives. Whatever our public identities may be, whatever our official titles, our heralded or derided achievements and the statistics that accrue to us like cobwebs, this is the voice we trust. For, if despair's temptations can be resisted, surely we become more human and compassionate, more like one another in our common predicament. There is a pain -- so utter -- It swallows substance up -- Then covers the Abyss with Trance -- So Memory can step Around -- across -- upon it -- As one within a Swoon -- Goes safely -- where an open eye -- Would drop Him -- Bone by Bone. Dickinson's poem must be one of the most terrifying ever written, yet, in the way of all great art, it so eloquently transcends its subject that it is exhilarating. Joyce Carol Oates's most recent book is the forthcoming novel "Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang." |
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