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357622_3 | Sierra Club ($35), also the publisher of her ''Edible Landscaping'' in 1982 ($19.95). In an enlightened departure from the usual gardening-for-gourmets tome, Ms. Creasy developed 17 ''theme gardens'' - including Native American, French, Mexican, edible flowers and culinary herbs. Then she scoured the country to find gardeners, most of whom were also cooks, who would grow to her specifications. In her travels, she said, ''the biggest thing I find is so many cooks who've never tasted really fresh food.'' Until more cooks - restaurants chefs, too - learn the taste of real food freshly grown, she said, vegetables will sit on the side of the plate. ''And they'll grow on the side of the yard where no one can see them,'' she said mournfully. Ms. Creasy's garden wraps around the comfortable house where she reared her two children. With its profusion of plants - Italian purple artichokes, pineapple guavas, crognes (resembling Jersusalem artichokes but with a subtler flavor), sorrel, Seitan carrots (huge roots with unexpected masses of flavor), ruby crescent potatoes (small ellipses with pink-toned flesh), hop vines - her garden is a perfect example of what dedication can accomplish. ''There's no mystery to gardening,'' she insisted. ''You dig a hole in the ground, you throw in some manure, you plant some seeds. The biggest mistake the beginning gardener makes is in not preparing the soil.'' It isn't even necessary to have a yard to have a garden, Ms. Creasy said, noting that apartment dwellers can grow salad sprouts. ''Especially if you have children, you should grow sprouts just to show them the living process and how it goes into your food,'' she said. ''You can have herb pots, thyme or mesclun, a mixture of young salad greens, in the window.'' Cooks who care about their food but can't garden, she added, should frequent markets with good produce and seek out specialty growers who pay attention to the quality of what they grow. ''Most of us are supermarket gardeners,'' she said. ''We don't know about pea shoots or beet greens.'' One nonsupermarket variety she grows is an old-fashioned red dent corn, bloody butcher. The seeds come from Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa, a nonprofit organization that rescues and makes available old and disappearing varieties. Ms. Creasy's bloody butcher corn goes into the ground early in June, and it can take as long as four months to mature fully. The | This Month: Rosalind Creasy, Los Altos, Calif.; Where a Front Yard Is Part of the Pantry |
357621_1 | complaining that the labeling was misleading. The competitors, Campbell Soup and the California Fresh-Pack Coalition, a group of seven tomato packers, say the word ''fresh'' gives Ragu an unfair advantage. Capitalizing on the enormous interest in fresh foods in this country, Ragu's television commercials for the Fresh Italian sauces show fresh tomatoes, sliced and dripping. The theme is ''more crushed tomatoes for more fresh tomato taste.'' Ragu defends its terminology and its product, although last week it did offer to modify the name slightly. ''It is Ragu's position,'' Eileen Sharkey, the company's director of communications for the company, said in an interview last week, that the labeling ''meets F.D.A. and U.S.D.A. requirements.'' Besides, she added, ''No one has presented any evidence that consumers are misled that this is a fresh, unprocessed product.'' The competitors argue that the difference between their claims to freshness and Ragu's is significant. ''We use fresh mushrooms when we make the sauce,'' said Robert Subin, a Campbell vice president, ''and the California packers use fresh tomatoes.'' In other words, the mushrooms and the tomatoes are fresh when they are put in the can or jar; only then are they heat-processed. Ragu, the competitors argue, uses tomatoes that have already been heat-processed before they go into the sauce. The competitors have engaged a public relations firm, Northwest Strategies, to help make their case. In a news release, the firm quoted from a letter to the F.D.A. by Linda F. Golodner, executive director of the National Consumers League, an advocacy group: ''Describing a heat-processed, remanufactured product as fresh flies in the face of reason, is clearly intended to mislead consumers and violates existing F.D.A. policy. F.D.A. should require manufacturers to distinguish between a product made from fresh tomatoes and that made from reproduced tomato paste. This would be consistent with F.D.A.'s requirement that a distinction be made between orange juice made from fresh oranges and juice made from concentrate.'' What concerns consumer groups is the possibility of economic deception. ''Apparently some consumers believe this product is superior to those that don't carry the fresh label,'' said Bruce Silverglade, legal director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group. ''We sympathize with the aggrieved competitors.'' But Mr. Silverglade said neither Prego nor the California Fresh-Pack group had any more right to the term fresh than Ragu did. ''Fresh-packed,'' he said, ''is an oxymoron.'' ''The | Eating Well |
352397_3 | already have, she said. Tighter credit markets, slowing growth in prices for cellular franchises and various plans for new mobile communications have hurt cellular companies and their stocks, said Frank J. Governali, an analyst at First Boston. In addition to personal networks, there are two other technologies that are less technically sophisticated but still pose a threaten to current cellular companies. One involves wireless phones that can send but not receive telephone calls. The other would use for cellular telephones the radio frequencies now used for radio dispatch of taxis and delivery vehicles. The prospect of competition has hurt cellular stocks because the companies' share prices depend heavily on continued growth rather than on the value of their physical assets. Just last month the GTE Corporation agreed to pay $710 million for 14 cellular franchises that had plant, property and equipment worth only $45 million. Most of the cost of cellular services lies in building the networks, not in running them, so more than half the revenues from new customers typically flow straight to the bottom line. The threat of personal networks lies in their potential to grab those new customers. But cellular industry experts say the industry is rapidly upgrading its systems and increasing the number of channels. And the sheer number of transmitters required for high-frequency personal networks - Millicom speaks of putting one on every three floors in some skyscrapers - might make the systems prohibitively expensive, Mr. Governali said. Investors largely anticipated the F.C.C.'s granting of experimental licenses to Millicom, said Kenneth N. Leon, a cellular industry analyst at Bear, Stearns & Company. But one possibility that the market has not discounted is that a large company, like General Motors or General Electric, might try to build a personal network. If such a company came forward in the next 12 to 18 months with a plan to spend $1 billion or more on a new system, then cellular stocks would probably be knocked down again, he said. Correction: May 12, 1990, Saturday, Late Edition - Final The Market Place column in Business Day yesterday about the stocks of cellular telephone companies misstated the value of the plant, property and equipment included in a recent acquisition by the GTE Corporation. After the column was published, the company said that the figure it had supplied, $45 million, was incorrect, and that the number should have been $58 million. | Market Place; Innovation Hurts Cellular Stocks |
352244_0 | LEAD: *3*** COMPANY REPORTS ** *3* Calgene Inc. (OTC) Qtr to March 31 1990 1989 Revenue 14,408,000 10,301,000 Net inc b836,000 c218,000 Shares outst 11,285,000 8,541,000 6mo rev 21,162,000 15,249,000 Net loss b925,000 2,217,000 Shares outst 10,481,000 8,344,000 *3*** COMPANY REPORTS ** *3* Calgene Inc. (OTC) Qtr to March 31 1990 1989 Revenue 14,408,000 10,301,000 Net inc b836,000 c218,000 Shares outst 11,285,000 8,541,000 6mo rev 21,162,000 15,249,000 Net loss b925,000 2,217,000 Shares outst 10,481,000 8,344,000 b-Included a pretax gain of $1,294,000 on sale of assets for both the quarter and 6 months. c-Net loss The company said latest 6-month results included product sale of $6.3 million from Plant Genetics Inc., acquired July 1, 1989, and from Noblebear Inc., acquired Feb. 1, 1990. The company also said the gain on sale of assets in the current year resulted from gain of the sale of a 30 percent equity interest in Calgene's seed potato business to Kirin Brewery Co., Ltd. | Calgene Inc. reports earnings for Qtr to March 31 |
352419_2 | But the proposed central terminal, priced at about $1 billion, and the $126 million elevated monorail were the most visible segments of a project to improve the 40-year-old airport. The central terminal would have been built across the street from the present International Arrivals Building, linked to that building by a moving sidewalk. Passengers on all domestic and international flights would have checked their luggage at the central terminal, then boarded the monorail for the smaller terminals operated by the individual airlines. The flights would have continued to leave from these smaller terminals. Leading Gateway for Travelers Kennedy is the nation's leading airport for international travel. In 1988, the last year for which figures are available, the airport handled 32 percent of all international travelers. Los Angeles International Airport ranked second with 10.9 percent. When the Kennedy renovation plans were announced in March 1987, the authority described the terminal as the heart of the project. It was designed to handle the 40 million to 45 million passengers projected for Kennedy by the year 2000. Last year the airport handled 30 million passengers. Richard T. Anderson, president of the Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit planning group, said a central terminal would also have made it easier to link mass-transit systems to Kennedy. ''This is a cause of great concern,'' Mr. Anderson said of the decision to shelve the terminal plans. ''But you can't blame the Port Authority for facing financial reality.'' Stephen Berger, executive director of the Port Authority, said he believed the airlines were shortsighted in not supporting the central terminal and monorail. He said individual airlines feared that a central terminal would stimulate competition by providing easier access to all airlines and giving passengers a better chance to shop around. Mr. Murphy, the airlines' consultant, said they would have been reluctant to support the terminal even if the industry had not run into tougher financial times. For one thing, he said, the central baggage system in the proposed terminal would have taken baggage handling out of the hands of the individual airlines. ''This could get messy, and the passenger complaints could rise to a very high crescendo,'' he said. Rise of Skepticism Noted Mr. Murphy said the airlines never completely agreed on the central terminal project. He said they began to grow skeptical of the plan about six months ago after evaluating the costs. He said the airlines were | AIRPORT OVERHAUL AT KENNEDY IS CUT |
357371_1 | the disaster that many predicted a year ago, nor is it enjoying the booming growth of the past. A Chinese Government campaign that started last summer to eliminate ''inefficient'' rural and township enterprises - hundreds of thousands of small companies and production centers in Guangdong alone - greatly slowed the region's output. So did a sharp downturn in China's domestic demand for the products Guangdong has become famous for: bicycles and color televisions, small washing machines, smaller refrigerators and sewing machines. In recent months, the economy has shown signs of reviving, while other regions have ground to a standstill, or worse. ''The reason is mostly subterfuge,'' said one foreigner living in the area who keeps close watch on the factories and small enterprises. ''Many of the enterprises that the Government closed quickly merged or formed again, often using 'retained earnings' that were retained in big glass jars under the flood. And today the political pressure is easing up.'' In fact, on the streets of Guangzhou, as Canton is now called, Hong Kong's influence seems to be overshadowing Beijing's. Night markets are alive with a variety of products that one would rarely find in the capital, from fruits to locally produced Hitachi television sets. The Chinese-language newspapers are once again beginning, if cautiously, to hail the productivity of privately run factories, and local businesses have little interest in selling their raw materials to Government-run factories that are unwilling to pay market prices. Nonetheless, there is a broad sense that Guangdong cannot again get too far ahead of the rest of China. ''It creates too much jealousy and too many political tensions,'' said a Chinese banker based in Hong Kong. Some development is going elsewhere, especially as Taiwanese entrepreneurs develop the coastal area closest to Taiwan itself, around the port of Tianjin. Other projects that a year ago seemed bound to fuel development are delayed until the direction of the political wind becomes clear. On nearby Hainan Island, where the Kumagai Gumi Company, a Japanese construction concern, paid a reported $30 million early last year for 30 square kilometers of land, the governor was ousted and the project has stalled. The best news Guangdong has received in a year came last week, not from Beijing but from Washington. President Bush's decision to continue most-favored-nation trading status for China marks a reprieve for Guangdong, which is more dependent than ever on its exports. | In Canton, Investors See Hong Kong After 1997 |
357450_0 | LEAD: AS racial and ethnic violence erupts throughout the world, psychologists are striving to understand what impels people to acts of hatred, particularly when they act in groups. AS racial and ethnic violence erupts throughout the world, psychologists are striving to understand what impels people to acts of hatred, particularly when they act in groups. Researchers are focusing on who commits such crimes, what motivates them and exactly why people who would not commit violent acts on their own express their hatred so freely in groups. Scientists studying hate crimes have made these findings: * They are far more lethal than other kinds of attacks, resulting in the hospitalization of their victims four times more often than is true for other assaults. * They are crimes of youth: most of those who perpetrate them are in their teens or 20's. But they are not crimes of youthful rebellion: those who carry them out are venting feelings shared by their families, friends and community, researchers say. * The large majority are committed by people in groups of four or more. And the more people in the group, the more vicious the crime. * They reflect the primal emotions aroused by the love of one's own group; these deep feelings of group identity are particularly vivid in times of economic and political uncertainty and among people who suffered emotional neglect as children. These factors are at play, experts say, as racial, religious and ethnic incidents erupt around the world, in riots between Azerbaijanis and Armenians, anti-Semitism in Russia, the racial killing in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, and the tensions in the borough between blacks and Koreans. ''Everyone who collects data reports a steady increase in hate crimes in the last year or two,'' said Howard Ehrlich, director of the National Institute Against Prejudice and Violence in Baltimore. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, for instance, reported that last year its civil rights unit had a record number of cases. ''These crimes are certainly on the increase,'' said Mike Kortan, a bureau spokesman. Although the figures may reflect increased reporting rather than an actual increase in crime, rates for what the police call ''bias crimes'' - acts of violence inspired by racism and other prejudice - are also rising. The Boston Police Department, which had recorded about 150 bias crimes each year from 1986 to 1988, had 202 cases in 1989. In New York City, such | As Bias Crime Seems to Rise, Scientists Study Roots of Racism |
355867_1 | said available evidence showed only a statistical association between tumors and exposure to electromagnetic fields, not a causal relationship. Neither do the studies explain the mechanism by which such radiation might cause cancer, he said, but the evidence points toward the magnetic field rather than the electric field. ''We are only saying that we are seeing a link that may be significant,'' Mr. Farland added. Advisory Review Awaited The draft report has not yet been reviewed by the E.P.A.'s science advisory board and has not been released to the public. The findings were first reported by CBS News on Monday. Once the draft is reviewed, probably by August, it will be made available for public comment, a spokesman for the agency said. The findings on the possible health effects of exposure to radiation from electromagnetic fields generally agree with those in a report issued last year by Congress's Office of Technology Assessment. Officials of the environmental agency noted today that until recently there had been considerable skepticism among scientists that low-level radiation from electromagnetic fields could cause cancer or other serious health problems. But a growing collection of data has convinced some scientists that there may be a connection, the officials said. A Statistically Significant Risk The Office of Technology Assessment report said: ''The emerging evidence no longer allows one to categorically assert there are no risks. But it does not provide a basis for asserting that there is a significant risk.'' The E.P.A. survey appears to go a small step further by concluding that exposure to low-level electromagnetic fields may pose a small but statistically significant risk of cancer. The electricity used in homes and offices in the United States is produced by current that alternates back and forth at 60 cycles a second. This power produces electric and magnetic fields that emit radiation. Unlike radiation from X-rays, radiation from alternating current is non-ionizing. Ionizing radiation can cause chemical and molecular changes in living tissue, but non-ionizing radiation does not produce such changes. It is not known how non-ionizing radiation might cause tumors. Some scientists have called for a ''prudent avoidance'' of excessive exposure to electromagnetic fields while further evidence accumulates. The E.P.A. staff study makes no such recommendation. ''The real message we want to send,'' said Mr. Farland, the environmental agency official, ''is that this information should not cause undue alarm but does suggest the need for additional | U.S. Sees Possible Cancer Tie to Electromagnetism |
355933_2 | of Representatives. The legislation would guarantee millions of disabled Americans access to employment, transportation, public accommodations and communications services. A1 The fund that insures bank deposits in the U.S. fell last year to its lowest level of assets, as a percentage of insured deposits, since the fund was established in the early 1930's, the Government announced. A1 The deficit could grow by $61 billion in the next fiscal year because of costs for bailing out the savings and loan industry, Bush Administration officials told Congressional budget negotiators. A27 All babies should sit in safety seats during airplane flights, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The board's recommendation pressures the Federal Aviation Administration to strengthen its safety rules. A14 The ban on cameras in Federal court is being reconsidered. Chief Justice Rehnquist says he is amenable to experimenting with TV coverage of federal trial and appellate proceedings. A14 Low-level electromagnetic fields generated by common appliances and power lines may be linked to cancer, a draft report by the Environmental Protection Agency says. A22 Gene-implant technique raises hopes on cancer A22 Exercise rated as good as drugs for blood pressure A22 Arkansas Republicans are resurgent in the traditionally Democratic state. The first hard-fought, statewide Republican primary in a century features two well-known, well-financed gubernatorial contenders. A24 Coast Guard says it suspects 10 of drug dealing A26 Boston journal: Adversity can help a garden to grow A14 REGIONAL B1-5 Mayor Dinkins had a ''town meeting'' to promote racial harmony in New York City. The two-hour session at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine featured speeches by state and city leaders. B1 News analysis: Dinkins uses the pulpit for a stump B3 A reputed eyewitness in Bensonhurst murder case wavers B3 Indictment cites discrimination in street attack B4 Four young men were indicted in New Jersey on charges of sexually assaulting a retarded teen-aged girl in 1989. The four, all 19 years old, live in Glen Ridge, where they were high school football teammates. B1 Chief Justice Robert N. Wilentz of New Jersey has taken unusual public actions to defend the integrity and reputation of the judicial system in his 11 years as head of one of the most respected state courts. B1 Plan approved in Albany to restore faith in state finances B2 Eight factories called New York's top polluters in '88 B4 New York may reduce dump fees B4 Police | NEWS SUMMARY |
355790_4 | company's president. Thermedics, a subsidiary of the Thermo Electron Corporation, was making a device that could measure tiny traces of nitroglycerine, a carcinogen, in food and other substances. The chemical also happens to be present in small quantities in nearly all explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation asked the company to develop a bomb detector. Sensitive to Faint Vapors Thermedics' portable bomb detector, a version of which was recently tested by the company at Logan International Airport in Boston, emits no radiation but rather ''sniffs'' for faint vapors released by plastic explosives. Passengers step into a telephone-like booth, where they are swept by a current of warm air, which is then pumped into a chamber to be analyzed. The machine can detect minute quantities of the chemicals, one part in 100 trillion, Mr. Wood said. While critics say the machine can be fooled by perfume and other strong scents, Mr. Wood contends that the false alarm rate during the test averaged only 1 in 2,000. Thermedics has sold fewer than a dozen of the devices. The machine is used by the State Department for embassy security and is being tested at airports in Britain, France, Switzerland, West Germany and Israel. Thermedics has developed a machine based on the technology that can detect cocaine and heroin, and it is already in use at a nuclear power plant. The company plans to build a machine that can detect both drugs and bombs. Another company has invented an advanced version of the X-ray machine that it says can detect plastic explosives. American Science and Engineering, based in Cambridge, Mass., makes a machine called an X-ray backscatter that is used in many government buildings. It displays three-dimensional views of a piece of luggage. Conventional X-ray machines can spot dense objects, like a gun, but cannot detect plastic explosives. Using Neutrons To Fight Terrorism A bomb detection system manufactured by Science Applications International bathes luggage in thermal neutrons, some of which are captured by the atoms of the luggage and its contents. These atoms emit gamma rays, which reveal the chemical structure of the objects. The rays are collected and measured by detectors and, in turn, classified by a computer. Using this machine, explosives that might otherwise go undetected can be identified by their chemical structure. Suitcases that don't pass the computer analysis can be diverted from the flow of cleared baggage. BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY | Terror Creates a Need: Better Bomb Detectors |
356043_0 | LEAD: Calgene Inc., a plant biotechnology company, says it has isolated and inserted into plants a gene that can help reduce the saturated fat in vegetable oils. Calgene Inc., a plant biotechnology company, says it has isolated and inserted into plants a gene that can help reduce the saturated fat in vegetable oils. Separately, the Escagenetics Corporation, another biotechnology company, says it has genetically engineered the coffee plant for the first time. One goal, the company said, is to produce coffee that is naturally low in caffeine. The two developments, announced Tuesday, testify how fast scientists are learning to introduce new genes into crops to produce improved foods. This year scientists at three different companies said they had introduced genes into corn. Until then, corn and related grains had been particularly resistant to the introduction of foreign genetic material. The companies involved in genetic engineering of corn are Biotechnica International, the DeKalb Genetics Corporation and the Monsanto Company, working with the United States Department of Agriculture. Despite progress in the basic science, experts say food products made from genetically engineered plants are still several years away and may face regulatory hurdles before they are approved as safe for marketing. Calgene, based in Davis, Calif., said it had cloned the gene for producing an enzyme that plays a central role in determining the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fatty acids in vegetable oils. By inserting the gene into plants, Calgene scientists hope to induce the plants to increase the production of the enzyme, stearoyl ACP desaturate. Low-fat oils could have a big market, since lowering the intake of saturated fat can reduce heart disease. But Daniel Wagster, Calgene's chief financial officer, says more than one gene may be needed to produce oils low in saturated fats. Escagenetics, which is based in San Carlos, Calif., said it had introduced a new gene into coffee using a proprietary technique. It did not specify what gene it had introduced or how it had done so. | Gene Engineering Used to Lower Fat and Caffeine |
353809_0 | LEAD: The Presidential commission that investigated the bombing of Pan American Flight 103 called today for far-reaching new measures internationally and at domestic airports to counter such attacks. But it also sharply criticized a costly bomb-detection initiative already undertaken by the Bush Administration. The Presidential commission that investigated the bombing of Pan American Flight 103 called today for far-reaching new measures internationally and at domestic airports to counter such attacks. But it also sharply criticized a costly bomb-detection initiative already undertaken by the Bush Administration. In two recommendations not widely debated before, the report urged the Federal Government to greatly increase its emphasis on security at airports within the United States, even though the risks are considered lower than at foreign airports, and it called for new scrutiny of mail and cargo shipments, both of which are carried in the holds of passenger jets. The report also said the Federal Aviation Administration was moving too fast to deploy new bomb detection devices, known as thermal neutron analysis machines, which cost about $1 million each but have not yet been proven to work effectively. The commission made five dozen recommendations for improving aviation security, some of which were disclosed before the final report was made public. But the report conceded that no amount of effort could erect foolproof barriers to a terrorist attack. The panel said terrorism must be ''confronted at its source'' with retaliation, including possibly military strikes, against its state sponsors. Confidential Recommendations The panel's chairwoman, Ann McLaughlin, told reporters today that the commission also gave President Bush a ''confidential memorandum'' making additional classified recommendations. A commission official said later that the memorandum urged the President to bolster ''human intelligence,'' or the use of secret agents to develop inside information about terrorists. The panel's work was welcomed by relatives of the 270 people who died when the flight from Frankfurt to New York was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988, shortly after a stopover in London. But among the dozens of relatives who came to Washington for the report's release, there was widespread disappointment that many of their recommendations were not adopted. The families, for example, have urged wide use of the new bomb detection technology. They also have sought a national policy of warning passengers whenever possible about potential security threats. The report called for public warnings only in cases when the threats are specific and | NEW STEPS URGED FOR AIR SECURITY |
353690_0 | LEAD: ''We've got a Department of Environmental Conservation that gives out a lot of advice on the outer atmosphere and the Brazilian rain forest - why can't they get the PCB's off the river in Glens Falls?'' - Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. [B4:6.] ''We've got a Department of Environmental Conservation that gives out a lot of advice on the outer atmosphere and the Brazilian rain forest - why can't they get the PCB's off the river in Glens Falls?'' - Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. [B4:6.] | Quotation of the Day |
353722_0 | LEAD: To the Editor: To the Editor: With regard to ''More in China Willingly Rear One Child'' (front page, May 9), China has now eliminated coercive abortions and is actively prosecuting families where female infanticide is suspected. In India, 1.6 million people are added monthly. If India replicated China's one-child policy, it would save 4,000 children's lives every day. Population growth in most of sub-Saharan Africa and the Asian subcontinent is growing out of control, and there may be as many as 150 million to 200 million starving to death soon after the turn of the century. The United States should fund the United Nations Fund for Population Activities and the International Planned Parenthood Federation to prevent abortions, extend voluntary family planning services and slow population growth by lowering birth rates. ROBERT W. GILLESPIE Pres., Population Communication Pasadena, Calif., May 10, 1990 | Fund Family Planning For the Third World |
353823_0 | LEAD: After three troubled weeks trying to steady a wiggling spacecraft and fix its sights on the heavens, ground controllers said yesterday that the Hubble Space Telescope was responding reliably to commands and was for the first time focusing on guide stars. This apparently clears the way for the telescope to take its first picture on Sunday. After three troubled weeks trying to steady a wiggling spacecraft and fix its sights on the heavens, ground controllers said yesterday that the Hubble Space Telescope was responding reliably to commands and was for the first time focusing on guide stars. This apparently clears the way for the telescope to take its first picture on Sunday. Officials of the space agency said the most recent alignment and focusing tests were the most successful and encouraging since the $1.5 billion spacecraft was released in orbit by a space shuttle on April 25. ''We have begun to focus the telescope,'' announced Michael M. Harrington, the testing chief, in a telephone briefing from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. ''It was a very satisfying day.'' Mr. Harrington said that after many failures, the telescope had finally been successful in locking onto guide stars, a critical step in aligning the spacecraft for scientific observations. He added that the spacecraft's systems were functioning well and that the activation of scientific instruments was running ahead of schedule. Disruptive Sunlight But because of alignment and pointing problems, ground controllers have fallen about two weeks behind in preparing the telescope to take its first picture. One of the latest difficulties is that each time sunlight hits or stops hitting the spacecraft it causes a slight wobble. Scientists are still studying the problem but have learned how to work in between wobbles. Dr. Edward Weiler, a scientist with the project, said that tests this week should refine the telescope's focusing ability and help controllers learn how to compensate for most of the spacecraft's early alignment problems. ''For the first time,'' Dr. Weiler said, ''we now are sure we know where we are pointing and how to lock on to stars and maintain our position. It's a significant accomplishment.'' | Hubble Telescope Able to Focus |
353698_0 | LEAD: KEVIN GREENE hates jokes about airline food. And as director of catering services for Pan American World Airways at Kennedy International Airport, he's heard them all. KEVIN GREENE hates jokes about airline food. And as director of catering services for Pan American World Airways at Kennedy International Airport, he's heard them all. ''It's unfortunate we get a bum rap,'' he said, proudly displaying a tray of lobster thermidor for first-class passengers on a flight to Paris. ''We're spending a fortune to buy top quality.'' Indeed, the nation's airlines are spending record amounts on food service in an effort to shed their image as the providers of the airborne equivalent of hospital cuisine. They are hiring well-known chefs to help revamp menus, replacing plastic with silverware and ceramic crockery, and offering more healthful fare. The changes are mostly apparent in small ways, and primarily in business and first-class sections, for which airlines spend three or four times more for food than they do for coach. American Airlines has begun baking fresh cookies on board and offering do-it-yourself ice cream sundaes in first class. United Airlines is serving Japanese food on its flights to Tokyo; Pan Am offers borscht on its New York-to-Moscow route, and today the airline will introduce hot meals on some short domestic flights. Many airlines have improved their wine selections, particularly on international flights. But some food experts, not to mention passengers, are skeptical. To them, airline food - particularly what is served in coach class - still deserves its dismal reputation. ''There is a concerted effort being made to improve food, but it may not manifest itself on the tray,'' said George Haupt, president of the In-Flight Food Services Association, a trade group of airline caterers. Mr. Haupt also maintains that the crowded conditions in coach class make it difficult for any dining experience to be pleasurable.''In coach, you're elbow to elbow with someone, you have a seat back in your face and then you're handed a tray with your whole meal on it,'' he said. Wolfgang Puck, owner of Spago restaurant in Los Angeles, phrased it more succinctly. ''To me, an airplane is still a great place to diet.'' The push for better food reflects a changing airline industry. With only eight American airlines controlling 90 percent of the domestic market, airlines compete less on fares and more on service. The fare wars of the | Can Good Food Fly At 35,000 Feet? |
353755_2 | Scanning, also have license applications pending with the F.C.C. for field tests. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company, Northern Telecom Ltd. of Canada, LM Ericsson of Sweden and the NEC Corporation in Japan have each separately been researching personal networks. Personal networks, so called because the phones would be so light that they could be carried anywhere, would use many more transmitters than conventional cellular systems, would operate at lower power and, most likely, at a frequency that is twice as high. Experts say these features should make it possible to create systems with millions of subscribers. With construction costs spread over a broader base, personal networks could become cheaper than cellular service and may become competitive with wired service. Advantages Are Seen The higher frequency and low power mean that signals do not go around corners well and are easily blocked by walls and floors of buildings. But engineers say these properties actually represent advantages because they enable the same frequency to be used for calls on different floors of a single skyscraper without the signals becoming scrambled. However, high-frequency transmissions also bounce off walls and windows easily, which may cause interference. The handsets for personal networks are little more than short-range, sophisticated walkie-talkies. For a call to a party in an office building or in another part of the city, a handset sends a signal to a transmitter, which relays the signal to another transmitter either over local telephone lines or by a direct microwave beam. The second transmitter then broadcasts the signal to the handset of the desired party. Experts say the handsets will be smaller and lighter than portable cellular telephones because they will need to send a signal only several hundred feet, instead of several miles, and so will function on batteries that are smaller and hold less power. The higher frequency will make it possible to conceal the antenna inside the phone. Personal networks are intended initially for use by office workers and pedestrians in dense urban areas. Tests have shown that the systems have trouble in fast-moving cars. Cellular companies, along with consultants, Wall Street analysts and money managers associated with the industry, are skeptical about the need for high-frequency personal networks. Cellular service providers could easily get into the personal network business by setting aside some of their channels for low-power transmitters and handsets if they see sufficient demand, said Haynes G. | The Race to Develop the Pocket Telephone |
353770_2 | in Toulouse, France, on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Lourdes a week ago. Blessing on the Peacemakers In the cathedral today, Peter Brooke, the British Government Secretary for Northern Ireland, sat next to Charles J. Haughey, the Prime Minister of the Republic, as Bishop Cahal B. Daly of Down and Connor said: ''To those who are trying patiently to promote dialogue between the political parties in Northern Ireland at this time, may I be allowed to say today: 'May God grant success to the work of your hands. May you enjoy the blessing Christ promised to the peacemakers.' '' Mr. Brooke, with Mr. Haughey's cooperation, has been trying to get politicians of some of Northern Ireland's Catholic and Protestant parties to start a political dialogue with each other, at first through him. Some Protestant leaders are insisting on a suspension of the working of the British-Irish agreement that has given Dublin a consultative role in the province's administration since 1985 before they will agree even to talk with the Catholics about ways to restore self-government in Belfast, where it was suspended when civil tensions peaked in the early 1970's. Loved Irish Language Cardinal O Fiaich, a patriot who loved the Irish language and changed his name from the English Fee that he had been born with to O Fiaich, son of Fiaich, in Irish, made no secret in life of his desire for Irish unity, which he believed could come only if the British left Northern Ireland. But Bishop Daly said, ''Cardinal O Fiaich was totally opposed to all use of violence purporting to advance nationalist aims.'' The day after an Irish Republican Army terrorist bomb wounded seven civilian employees at the British Royal Army's education unit in Eltham in South London, Bishop Daly recalled that the Cardinal had said that the two communities, Protestant and Catholic, had been placed side by side on the island not to war with each other but to make ''a new creation'' together. Addressing his remarks at the funeral to both sides, Bishop Daly said, ''May those committed to violence listen at last in death to this plea from the heart of that great Irishman who was Cardinal Tomas O Fiaich.'' The Right Rev. Dr. Robin Eames, like the late Cardinal an Ulsterman and Archbishop of Armagh, but in the Church of Ireland, in the Anglican Communion, could not attend the funeral today, | Plea for Peace at Irish Prelate's Burial |
350330_1 | five years of graduation, most people will want to go to graduate school or buy a house or condominium or get married and start a family, he said. All these things require money. Mr. Mason told of former students who had come to see him, seeking advice a year or so after graduation.''Many are not happy with their first jobs and want to go to graduate school,'' he said. Whether they are able to do so often depends on whether they have savings or debts. ''Students who have been living on $6,000 to $10,000 a year land that first job for $22,000 to $30,000, and their expectations grow,'' he said. It seems they can easily afford the cars and stereos they always wanted, as well as eat out and go to the theater and take nice trips. They can afford some of these things, but not all. The secret is taking 20 or 30 minutes a week to budget money and monitor spending. Write down what the after-tax income is, what the expenses will be for rent, utilities, food, student-loan repayments, clothing and transportation. Then set savings goals and choose how to spend the rest. An excellent source of help in learning how to budget is a new book by Mr. Mason, ''The Easy Family Budget'' (87 pages, $4.95), which was published this spring by Houghton Mifflin. The book would make a fine present for a new graduate, as well as be a big help to those families who are always struggling to make ends meet. After all, investment and retirement plans depend on having enough income to finance them. Often that depends less on increasing income than on using wisely what one has, Mr. Mason says. A personal source of help for new graduates can be a banker. Some financial institutions like Chemical Bank in New York offer new graduates reduced-fee accounts and will take time to work with students in setting up checking and savings accounts, credit cards and student-loan repayment plans that are appropriate for the individual. ''Devoting just a small amount of time to your personal finances can help you make the most of your resources, so that you can not only have fun today but prepare for future financial needs,'' said Peyton Patterson, vice president for Chemical's Chemplus Banking for Young Professionals. Ms. Patterson offered graduates several tips: * Build a financial safety cushion. The | Your Money; A Word of Advice For Class of 1990 |
350513_0 | LEAD: Humankind has survived famine, pestilence and innumerable battles. But according to the World Population Committee, another kind of disaster could lie ahead, unless population growth stabilizes in the 21st century. Humankind has survived famine, pestilence and innumerable battles. But according to the World Population Committee, another kind of disaster could lie ahead, unless population growth stabilizes in the 21st century. There are now about 5.3 billion people in the world. That number, the committee says, could triple 100 years from now. It's obviously hasty to predict, in Malthusian fashion, that the world won't be able to feed those multitudes. But it nevertheless makes good sense for wealthier nations to join now to make birth control universally available. In many places there's already a clear desire to plan for the future, even if the means are not always available. Some 62 countries, with 58 percent of the world's population, are on their way to stabilizing their population growth. But in 45 others, among them Haiti, Pakistan, the Sudan and the Ivory Coast, the population is doubling every 24 years. Developing countries are spending $3.2 billion for family planning activities; they could probably spend more. But they can't carry the burden alone. The world's industrialized nations, the committee says, should pick up the slack - by upping their annual contributions from an estimated $534 million in 1988 to $4 billion by the year 2000. Ideally, the U.S. will lead that effort as it has led such efforts in the past. First, though, it ought to get its own house in order. No new types of contraceptives have appeared here for 30 years. Lawsuits and politics have shrunk the number of companies doing contraceptive research from 17 to 1. Half the 1.5 million abortions in the U.S. result from contraceptive failure. Meanwhile, Washington yawns. People everywhere ought to have access to safe, effective contraceptives - Americans, too. | Contraceptive Chaos: Theirs, Ours |
350381_0 | LEAD: Sugar futures prices plunged yesterday more than a penny a pound on New York's Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange amid heavy selling by frustrated speculators on signs of slack global demand. Sugar futures prices plunged yesterday more than a penny a pound on New York's Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange amid heavy selling by frustrated speculators on signs of slack global demand. On other commodity markets, cocoa futures also fell sharply; copper futures retreated, and oil futures advanced. World sugar futures settled 0.50 cent to 1.16 cents lower, with the contract for delivery in July at 14.44 cents a pound, the lowest close for a near-month sugar contract since March 1. ''Everybody was bailing out of the market today,'' Judith Ganes, a Merrill Lynch & Company analyst, said. She said the market had been poised for a fall after repeated failures in the last week to sustain prices above 16 cents a pound. Speculators who had been holding out for higher prices finally gave up and began liquidating their positions, analysts said, causing a selloff of near-record proportions, with an estimated 76,000 contracts changing hands. The decline was spurred on by a bearish supply-demand report by the London trading house E.D.&F. Man Ltd. The firm sharply reduced its 1989-90 sugar deficit estimate, predicting consumption would outstrip production by 258,000 metric tons instead of 1.46 million metric tons as previously forecast. Ms. Ganes said the report probably contributed to the bearish sentiment but that the revised deficit forecast was in line with other trade house predictions. She said the sharp rise in sugar prices from less than 13 cents a pound last December has stifled demand, which is the reason for the lowered consumption expectations. Cocoa futures also fell sharply in New York amid skepticism about a plan by six major producer countries to curb excess production and encourage local consumption. Cocoa futures settled $23 to $29 lower, with May at $1,261 a ton. Crude oil futures were little changed on the New York Mercantile Exchange but near-month gasoline futures rose sharply, erasing Thursday's loss. The oil market is adjusting to OPEC's decision this week to reduce crude-oil production in an attempt to alleviate a global supply glut. FUTURES/OPTIONS | Signs of Easing Demand Send Sugar Prices Down |
350504_0 | LEAD: One piece of advice that is being recycled these days is to tune up the car to reduce pollution. One piece of advice that is being recycled these days is to tune up the car to reduce pollution. Traditionally, that meant checking the points and the mechanical timing of the sparkplug firing and adjusting the carburetor. But those remedies are as outdated as whale-oil lanterns. Few cars built since 1975 have points and their timing is electronic. Since 1985, carburetors have largely been supplanted by fuel injection. So what is there left to do? Quite a lot, mechanics and environmentalists say, although they differ on just what. The best way to cut pollution from a car, environmentalists say, is to leave it in the driveway, because even a properly functioning automobile emits 0.4 to 1.3 pounds of carbon dioxide a mile. Carbon dioxide is harmless to humans, but adds to the atmosphere's inventory of gases that trap heat and are believed to contribute to global warming. A bus or train uses half as much energy per passenger-mile, or less, and cuts carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon pollution by substantially more than half. Better yet, use a bicycle. For those who have to drive, and much of the country does, a well-maintained car can still get 9 percent more mileage on a gallon of gasoline than a poorly maintained one. That means 9 percent less carbon dioxide, as well as less nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons, which cause smog, and carbon monoxide. Oil companies have begun marketing gasolines designed to burn more cleanly, although the extent of changes in the gas varies widely. While oil companies and car manufacturers struggle toward cleaner car-fuel combinations, engineers say there are steps motorists can take now to decrease pollution, save money and keep a car running in top form. Some of the advice is the same as it always was: Keep the tires properly inflated, to cut rolling resistance. Change the oil on schedule, because old oil gets thin, and will seep around the piston rings into the combustion chamber, and burn, causing pollution. If the oil gets old enough, it will thicken, increasing friction. Some advice is new: Don't spill gasoline at the self-serve pump, because unburned gasoline releases chemicals called volatile organic compounds, which react in sunlight to form ground-level ozone, or smog. When the pump shuts off automatically, don't ''top off.'' Other | CONSUMER'S WORLD: Coping; With Auto Pollution |
351177_5 | is rapidly diminishing the river's capacity to cleanse itself. The contaminants come in small and large doses, some easily absorbed in the great volume of water, others permanently polluting its environment. The Danube, at the center of Europe, may appear to have no obvious guardian. But tens of thousands of people have become devoted to its protection in recent years. One of their greatest successes came in 1989, when they halted construction on the giant Nagymaros hydroelectric dam complex. Behind Dunakiliti, a small village in the area where Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia meet, lies a portion of the large project. New channels along the Hungarian side of the Danube have been readied to serve the weir and deviation canals. Across the river, on the Czechoslovak side, a new power station is poised to link up with the spillway. Bleak Banks Tons of concrete, already poured, and long strips cleared of vegetation have turned these banks into bleak places. But the bulldozers and cranes at Dunakiliti are still and the workers have gone. ''It's been like this since before Christmas,'' said the lonely guard. Environmentalists, citing studies by engineers and biologists, argued that the impact of the complex would be devastating: it would drown 50 islands and miles of forest, disturb the flow in tributaries and interfere with the sandy layers that clean the drinking water for Budapest. Raising the groundwater level would also damage the foundations of Esztergom, a 12th-century city that lies downstream. And Hungarians complained that much of the electricity generated would go to Austria as payment for the dams. Members of the Danube Circle, Eastern Europe's first large environmental group, say they fear that the project may still be alive. The three nations involved have already invested millions of dollars and plan new contractual negotiations. Radioactive Leaks In the meantime, environmental leaders have other pressing concerns. They report that a Czechoslovak nuclear power plant on the Vag, a Danube tributary, is raising the water's temperature and has leaked radioactive material. ''There is a lot of unrecorded contamination,'' said Andras Lukacs, a geophysicist who heads the Foundation for the Protection of the Environment in Budapest. While most industries in the Danube basin lack adequate filter installations, at least they are there to be seen. But ''much of the used oil from vehicles is not collected,'' Mr. Lukacs said. ''Many storage tanks of petrol stations and depots leak. Toxic | Befouled to Its Romantic Depths, Danube Reaches a Turning Point |
353209_1 | Judgment'' is a brilliant blue. The public scrutiny that has accompanied the restoration so far is heartening testimony to the enduring significance of monuments like the Sistine. But the nature of the scrutiny has at times been alarming. A handful of critics of the project have managed to keep debate alive by focusing on technical matters that have been easily misinterpreted: questions have been raised about the characteristics of the solvent, called AB-57, used to wipe away grime, and whether glazes and small details were mistakenly removed by the restorers. Repeatedly over the last 10 years, these questions have been addressed not only by the Vatican but also by independent experts. Far from the controversial project that the news media have led the public to believe it is, the restoration of the ceiling has met with extraordinary and international approval among scholars and conservators. But this is not to say the project has been without problems considerably further reaching than discussions about AB-57; the pity is that these problems have so far been overshadowed by smaller debates. Far and away the most significant issue to have been ignored is the quality of the environment within the chapel. As many as 19,000 people a day trudge through the Sistine, bringing in dirt and humidity that can harm the frescoes and eventually undermine the painstaking restoration. Years ago, the Vatican accommodated visitors by installing heating in the floor of the Sistine, further altering the precarious atmosphere in the 132-foot-long chapel. The heating is no longer used, but the chapel has apparently become even more of a tourist attraction - and thus a financial boon to the Vatican - since the restoration began. The overriding question raised by the restoration, one that relates to the care of all monuments, is whether the monetary interests of the church and the public's freedom to visit the chapel will be tempered so the paintings can be preserved for future generations. The Vatican has talked about climate controls but it has yet to take any serious action. Another troubling issue involves the commercial sponsorship of the Sistine project. Other restoration campaigns in Italy, like the work on Leonardo da Vinci's ''Last Supper'' in Milan, have been helped by flexible and accommodating corporate and government sponsors. The Vatican accepted an offer from Nippon Television to pay for the project, in return for which the Japanese company was granted | Review/Art; After a Much-Debated Cleaning, A Richly Hued Sistine Emerges |
353265_0 | LEAD: Addressing thousands who came on a pilgrimage of protest and penitence to the Jewish cemetery where 34 graves were desecrated last week, the Chief Rabbi of France appealed to his compatriots today to stand against anti-Semitism before it spreads through the country. Addressing thousands who came on a pilgrimage of protest and penitence to the Jewish cemetery where 34 graves were desecrated last week, the Chief Rabbi of France appealed to his compatriots today to stand against anti-Semitism before it spreads through the country. ''There is a before Carpentras and an after Carpentras,'' the rabbi, Joseph Sitruk, said of this small town 60 miles north of Marseilles, where citizens and politicians gathered in an emotional ceremony. ''This date should be historic in our country. It should mark the moment when all our energies are mobilized to save the honor and dignity of France.'' Looking toward the four Cabinet ministers and numerous religious leaders attending the ceremony, he added: ''We must give a lesson. And the lesson is given here today. France is here to associate itself with our pain. My brothers of the Jewish community, we are not alone.'' Echoing the outrage stirred by the desecration here and by other acts of vandalism in the northeastern town of Wissembourg, Interior Minister Pierre Joxe said those who traveled to the old Jewish cemetery today symbolized ''our determination to protect France and those who live here from intolerance, racism and anti-Semitism.'' ''This is a cemetery of those long deprived of their rights,'' he continued. ''We should remember France's three basic rights: first, liberty, which exists; second, equality, which is frequently neglected; third, fraternity, which is often forgotten. Let us not forget.'' Instances of Anti-Semitism France has had a number of anti-Semitic attacks in recent years. The best known included the bombing of a prominent Reform synagogue in Paris in 1980, in which 4 people were killed, and the submachine gun-and-grenade attack on of a popular Jewish restaurant in Paris in August 1982, killing 6 people and wounding 22. There have been nine desecrations of Jewish cemeteries in France in the last decade, involving almost 600 graves. The latest desecrations, which included the exhuming and mutilation of a body buried here last month, appears to have shaken many in this country into recognizing a rising racism. The Government, as well as many political and civic groups, have blamed the extreme rightist leader | Thousands in France Rally Against Anti-Semitism |
354688_0 | LEAD: It seemed like a dream come true: a virtual miracle fiber touted as being as tough as asbestos but completely safe and versatile enough to be used in products ranging from roofing materials to spackling compounds to brake shoes. It seemed like a dream come true: a virtual miracle fiber touted as being as tough as asbestos but completely safe and versatile enough to be used in products ranging from roofing materials to spackling compounds to brake shoes. That is what the Monsanto Company, a chemical and drug producer based in St. Louis, said it was ready to market in 1987. But Monsanto decided against producing the fiber; the company's stated concern was that it would attract costly and unwarranted lawsuits. Today, the Monsanto fiber, a compound known as calcium sodium metaphosphate, is a cause celebre. Vice President Dan Quayle called it the ''quintessential example'' of why new Federal laws are needed to limit awards in product liability suits. His comments were made in an article he wrote in the March issue of Product Safety & Liability Reporter, a regulatory newsletter. ''There may well have been a safe, effective asbestos replacment on the market and now there isn't,'' Richard F. Mahoney, Monsanto's chairman and chief executive, said in a telephone interview. Some consumer advocates are skeptical. They note, for example, that the fiber produced cancer in one of a series of laboratory animal tests that were conducted by Monsanto; for its part, Monsanto has dismissed the results, saying that the test was not relevant to humans. And the consumer advocates suggest that Monsanto's actions may have been caused by fears of substantive lawsuits rather than frivolous ones. ''They may have stopped this product on the basis of real safety concerns and that's correct,'' said Linda Lipsen, the legislative counsel for Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine. The debate over the Monsanto fiber comes as Congress discusses revising legislation to limit monetary awards in product liability. Advocates of the legislation, including the Bush Administration and the business community, say consumers are being deprived of certain products because companies are so fearful of lawsuits that they will not manufacture them. For example, eight drug companies produced birth control devices in the 1970's. Today, after scores of lawsuits and millions of dollars in damage claims paid to women claiming injuries from the products, only one company manufactures them. A pending bill | A Product Dead-Ended By Liability Fears |
354674_8 | exposure. It may be that the quantity of drugs used by the mother was less than that of other addicted mothers, whose children were severely damaged. But Muffin, too, has been hyperactive and reacts badly to changes in routine. Her teachers complain about her occasional temper tantrums. ''I don't know what to expect in the future,'' Mr. Cohan said. ''She may be a walking time bomb.'' The Big Gamble: Adoption At present, he said, she seems to be ''a very normal kid,'' adding, ''She's very bright, has a fabulous memory.'' And both parents are optimistic. ''She should have been one of the worst,'' Mrs. Cohan said. ''She is one of the best.'' They have legally adopted Muffin. Children like her who are clearly making progress are a tribute, in large part, to their parents' perseverance in providing a caring and consistent environment, Dr. Howard said. The doctor is herself daring to hope that some drug-exposed children will be able to find a place in society as adults. But society, she said, will have to prepare its schools and mental health services to face those children's special needs. Even Muffin, she said, is not yet home free. Helping a Child 'All of a Sudden, She'd Bite Me' Another couple who are cooperating with researchers adopted a girl six years ago through a lawyer who told them the natural mother took drugs but the baby ''checked out O.K.'' The child, it turned out, had been exposed in the womb to a combination of heroin and other drugs. She was a week old when she entered her new home and ''right away we discovered she had some physical problems,'' her adoptive father said. Doctors found that the infant was suffering from a mild form of cerebral palsy that made her left side slightly weaker than her right. She is not alone in having a physical problem. One study has suggested that thousands of drug-exposed children may need surgery by the time they enter elementary school to correct a defect in a heart valve. With a previous child, ''I'd put toys around and she'd explore,'' the mother said, but the new baby was lethargic. ''There was no curiosity, no exploration. I knew it wasn't right. So I got on the floor, wiggled her arms, talked to her, dangled things in front of her eyes.'' 'She's Not Comprehending' Between 6 and 9 months of age, | Adopting Drug Babies A Special Report; Child-Rearing Is Stormy When Drugs Cloud Birth |
352959_0 | LEAD: THE RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX, UPDATED: is it falling down or not? During the replacement of masonry on the paws and flanks in the last decade, speculation has been ongoing about the ultimate fate of the monumental man-lion hybrid at Giza, Egypt. Dating from approximately 2550 B.C., the 66-foot-high Sphinx was fashioned from low-grade limestone that historians believe was the inferior remains of the area quarried for the first pyramid. THE RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX, UPDATED: is it falling down or not? During the replacement of masonry on the paws and flanks in the last decade, speculation has been ongoing about the ultimate fate of the monumental man-lion hybrid at Giza, Egypt. Dating from approximately 2550 B.C., the 66-foot-high Sphinx was fashioned from low-grade limestone that historians believe was the inferior remains of the area quarried for the first pyramid. Weather-beaten in the subsequent millennia and long mottled by fissures and flaking, the Sphinx has suffered in modernity from the additional ravages of pollution, a rising water table and the rumbling of traffic in nearby Cairo. Since two slabs tumbled from one shoulder in 1988, the Egyptian Antiquities Organization (E.A.O.), a Government body, has been making repairs and continuing its scrutiny of the decay. Particular attention has been paid to the neck (right), where erosion had spawned worries that the head may one day topple over. In February, the Getty Conservation Institute of Marina del Rey, Calif., submitted a proposal for saving the Sphinx to the Egyptian Ministry of Culture and the E.A.O. Phase 1 of the project - the collection of environmental data to determine erosion rates - is expected to begin this month. The installation of a solar-powered weather station on the back of the Sphinx is scheduled for this week. A separate conservation effort, instigated by Unesco, is also under way. According to Mahasti Afshar, the Getty's special projects coordinator, the diagnostic phase could take up to two years. Phase 2, she says, will determine ''a formula for treatment. If the data warrants it, we will construct a temporary shelter over the Sphinx to protect it from wind erosion, rainfall, condensation and some pollutants.'' WORKS IN PROGRESS | The Mortal Sphinx |
352964_0 | LEAD: SCAFFOLDING HAS BECOME an integral part of Spain's urban landscape. So have construction crews, churning up clouds of dust and dirt. On almost every major street in cities like Madrid and Barcelona, buildings shrouded in green plastic resemble giant packages waiting to be unwrapped. SCAFFOLDING HAS BECOME an integral part of Spain's urban landscape. So have construction crews, churning up clouds of dust and dirt. On almost every major street in cities like Madrid and Barcelona, buildings shrouded in green plastic resemble giant packages waiting to be unwrapped. Most of the unveilings won't take place for another two years, however, as Spain races to rebuild its cities by 1992. This deadline is spoken about patriotically, and with an almost progandalike defiance by everyone from Government officals and architects to shopkeepers and hotel managers. In many offices, calendars posted in the halls even have a countdown to January 1992 printed in the lower right-hand corner. And with good reason. That is the year when the European community becomes a region of unrestricted trade. And Spain, which joined the community in 1986, is working overtime to bring itself up to the level of its economic colleagues. It is also the year when Barcelona will be the host of the Olympic Games and when the World's Fair will be held in Seville. Underlying these scheduled events, however, is a far bigger scheme. During the 36-year reign of Francisco Franco, who died in 1975, Spain was perceived as a backward country. But now, with its stable democracy, the country is booming economically. Not only has the Spanish Government launched ambitious plans to rebuild its cities and infrastructure - highways, railroads and ports - but foreign investment has poured into Spain from Western Europe, the United States and Japan at the rate of more than $10 billion per year. Tourism is up, as well. But just how good is it for a country to be building so much so fast? ''The wheels are turning too quickly,'' says Estanislao Perez-Pita y Junquera, a Madrid-based architecture company whose office is bursting with commissions, including the renovation of a large public library, an archeology museum and the Spanish Embassy in Vienna. ''We don't have time to think what we're doing. It's overwhelming. Spain is trying to catch up with the rest of Europe after being in the dumps for 50 years. And we're trying hard. But there's | Spain: Spires in the Sky |
352924_4 | pride in its research being at the very cutting edge of technology; if it did not do so, the company would never have been able to hold its own in the technological revolution of the last generation, and would have sunk rapidly to the status of a has-been. Yet I.B.M.'s architecture is a few steps behind: the company is a great patron, but it is a patron of the tried, of the acceptable. This company is no corporate philistine by any means - but it is more conservative than it lets on. Like a museum board intent on commissioning an ''important'' building that its community will admire but not object to, I.B.M. almost never crosses the boundaries of convention. Its architecture almost always elicits admiration - but it only rarely presents a challenge. If I.B.M. were so determined in its products to wait for the proven, it would have lost the battle to Apple long ago. There are some exceptions, or near-exceptions, and they should be given their due. For some reason I.B.M. tends to do slightly better out of the United States - perhaps it feels more willing to take risks. As a result, while the company has not exactly blazed a radical trail anywhere, its buildings seem sharper, crisper, when they are commissioned abroad. And the architects tend to be less the familiar names who get I.B.M. jobs in America. Norman Foster's office building in Portsmouth, England, of 1972; Ricardo Legorreta's manufacturing plant in Guadalajara, Mexico, of 1975, and his technology center in Mexico City of 1979, and Gino Valle's distribution center in Basiano, Italy, of 1982, all stand out. The record is improving somewhat in this country, however. Solana, an office and training complex completed last year outside of Fort Worth, Tex., with sections designed by Mr. Legorreta and others by the New York firm of Mitchell/Giurgola (and overall planning by Barton Myers and landscape design by Peter Walker) is one of the strongest suburban office complexes anywhere in the United States. The new towers by the Pei Cobb Freed and Kohn Pedersen Fox firms, planned for Minneapolis and Montreal respectively, models of which are in the show, are striking and potent works of urban sculpture that say more than we might expect about the state of the corporate skyscraper right now. In both towers, curving sections play off against boxy ones. Indeed, they are oddly similar, | CORPORTE DESIGN THAT STAYS ONTHE SAFE SIDE |
353133_2 | value to the buyer'' than traditional fuel, at one-third to one-half of the cost. Integrated Tire has the sole tire-collection permit in New Jersey because ''we have a market,'' Mr. Battaglia said, adding that the company has ''back orders for 115,000 tons of tires,'' representing 11.5 million passenger tires, from cement manufacturers in Mexico and Greece. ''If all we were doing was making big piles out of little piles, they'd call us a landfill,'' Mr. Battaglia said. Shredded tires are also used inroad construction and for athletic surfaces like running tracks. But the demand for those uses is low, Mr. Battaglia said. Under the direct-payment program of the 1988 recycling plan Westchester reimburses each community $17 for every ton of tires and other refuse it diverts from the Charles Point waste plant. Cortlandt, Greenburgh, Mount Vernon, Peekskill and Yonkers have been in the tire program, said a spokeswoman for the county, Abby Pelton. Cortlandt, Mount Vernon and Peekskill pick up the tires at curbside. The village of Scarsdale shipped more than 15 tons of tires to Integrated Tire last year, before the county contract went into effect. The village paid the company $2 a tire, more than under the current contract, but nonetheless ''jumped'' at the chance to dispose of them, said the solid-waste consultant for the village, James Rice. ''It used to be hard to find a place,'' Mr. Rice said, but ''the county's contract guarantees there will be a place to take them.'' The manager of refuse disposal in Yonkers, Ronald D. Bloomer, said, ''You're lucky if you break even'' in recycling tires. He said Yonekrs was not breaking even. Mr. Bloomer said that most residents knew about the program through word of mouth, but that Yonkers had not pushed to recycle tires because of the expense. The spokeswoman for the city, Dee Barbato, said most tires taken to Port Newark were from ''our own trucks and police cars and from lot cleanups.'' Neither Yonkers nor Scarsdale accept tires from other towns. Ms. Pelton suggested that people with tires to dispose of call the other municipalities that currently recycle tires or request that their own towns or villages do so. On June 30, which the County Health Department has designated Household Chemical Cleanup Day, tires, chemicals and other combustibles can be taken to the county fire-training center on Dana Road in Valhalla from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. | Communities Are Recycling Tires in Clean-Energy Program |
352949_3 | retirees and Go players. Over the computer they get acquainted, trade anecdotes and exchange and debate ideas. The growth of these electronic communities is difficult to measure precisely, but by all accounts the increase has been striking in the last few years. At work or at home, there are several million Americans now using computer networks of some kind, and their numbers continue to grow rapidly, computer specialists say. International System Emerging There are large collections of computer networks, like the Internet, with an estimated two million members, and Usenet, with more than a million users, that now form the backbone of an emerging international system. These big groupings are partly paid for with Federal funds and fees paid by companies. In addition, there are many commercial networks, which are typically linked to Internet and Usenet. For example, Compuserve, a nationwide electronic conference and information service, now has 550,000 members and is adding 8,000 a month. An independent network, the Prodigy Services Company, a joint venture between I.B.M. and Sears, Roebuck & Company, has grown from 160,000 subscribers last October to 381,000 today. Besides the costs of a personal computer and telephone charges, subscribers often pay fees ranging from several dollars a month to several dollars an hour. Networks advertise in computer magazines usually, but also in some newspapers. Still, most people who join networks learn of them from friends or colleagues at work or school. Users can sign up in a variety of ways, from writing in to to calling a designated toll-free telephone number. Much Debate on Impact The sociological impact of computer networks is a matter of much debate, and the evidence so far is mainly anecdotal. Still, it seems beyond doubt that the effect of this new generation of electronic communication will be significant. Simply put, the computer network allows many people to communicate with many others who might be anywhere in the world. It provides for participation quickly and easily in a way that letters, telephones and television do not. Yet the spread of computer networks also raises troubling possibilities. Some adolescents, for example, seem to find computer communication so easy and captivating that they spend hours a day at the keyboard, perhaps retarding the development of face-to-face social skills. Computer networks can also pose ethical issues, especially in matters of personal privacy and access to a network. These issues surfaced recently in a political | Some Computer Conversation Is Changing Human Contact |
352893_3 | the air - are ruins. In the distance a leaning cylinder is part Tower of Pisa, part Russian Constructivist tower. Act II, the first lakeside scene, makes this tower - Rothbart's castle - larger in a watery Nordic environment; turbulent clouds meld into the icy floes below. These first two acts are so terrific that the second half pales by comparison. Siegfried's birthday (the queen mother does not tell him to marry here) is festive: Mr. Sergeyev's classically confident choreography includes a waltz for couples, an introspective solo placed before the usual pas de trois (in the Kirov version) and a polonaise with few polonaise steps. Daniel Meja and Ming-Jun Guan, both virtuosos, make the jester common to Soviet productions a childlike live wire. In Act II, Rothbart is not in owl disguise but, as danced by Christopher Adams and especially Simon Dow, a virile figure who seems to regard Odette as a sexual prize. The choreography in this lakeside scene derives from the Kirov version, and the corps, coached also by Anna-Marie Holmes, the Boston's ballet mistress, is astonishing in its disciplined harmony. Each performance is being led by a Kirov or Bolshoi star and a dancer from the Boston Ballet. This formula, though good for box office, does not always work. Nina Ananiashvili and Aleksei Fadeyechev looked marvelous together in the Bolshoi ''Swan Lake'' in Moscow last December. But Fernando Bujones, a permanent guest with the Boston Ballet and less than a perfect partner, could not establish a similar rapport with Miss Ananiashvili, despite the excellence of each dancer's solos. Why not break the self-imposed rules and have Miss Ananiashvili, a contemporary dancer who fills classical form with exciting energy, perform with Mr. Fadeyechev? (He is dancing ''Swan Lake'' with Trinidad Sevillano, a new member of the Boston Ballet.) The ballroom scene in Act III seems to take place in a garish red and gold hotel lobby, but Mr. Sergeyev's divertissements and the Black Swan pas de deux, using music and choreography familiar in the West, are effective. There is a jarring note when the vision of Odette, a reproach to Siegfried for being seduced by Odile, is all too visibly a woman in a white tutu who runs in and out. The leaning tower looms even larger in Act IV, where the choreography for the Swans includes one of the waltzes used by Balanchine in his one-act | Boston Ballet Opens a Door, Illuminating a Bygone Russia |
350252_0 | LEAD: A giant hydroelectric power project conceived in a time of big dreams and easy credit for Argentina has turned into a nightmare of delays and cost overruns that President Carlos Saul Menem says make it ''a monument to corruption.'' A giant hydroelectric power project conceived in a time of big dreams and easy credit for Argentina has turned into a nightmare of delays and cost overruns that President Carlos Saul Menem says make it ''a monument to corruption.'' Although Mr. Menem has threatened to halt work on the project, known as Yacyreta, other officials say the country's dire energy situation leaves no choice but to finish it. It is supposed to have 2,700 megawatts of installed power and the potential to produce energy equal to half of all the electricity that Argentina and Paraguay now use. Yacyreta, stretching for 45 miles along the Parana River, the border with Paraguay, is described as one of the biggest and most expensive public works projects under way in the world. In Argentina, it has also become the biggest symbol, among many, of the state's inability to manage its accounts and control corruption. Originally expected to cost $1.5 billion, it has cost $3 billion so far, and is less than 60 percent completed. Estimates of what will be needed to finish it range from $1.4 billion upward. 'A Monument to Corruption' Mr. Menem recently said the final cost would be $12 billion, a figure that probably includes interest. He also said it was not expected to be finished by the scheduled completion date, 1993, which has already been put off several times. ''Here's a monument to corruption,'' Mr. Menem said. ''It's Yacyreta. If possible, we are going to paralyze it for six months to a year, paying the salaries, of course, but putting a stop to this situation. Argentina cannot continue with this display of permanent waste.'' The President's attack on the project was motivated by a Government study that found the Argentine Government would have to put $779 million into Yacyreta this year and next to keep it going. Argentina, in the throes of a battle against hyperinflation and immense state deficits, clearly does not have the money. With the economy deep in recession, there is continual concern that a wrong move will set off social unrest, which has already manifested itself sporadically with the sacking of grocery stores. Coincidentally or not, | Buenos Aires Journal; Billions Flow to Dam (and Billions Down Drain?) |
350213_0 | LEAD: For more than a year, the Mayor of Colorado Springs read the electronic messages about city business that members of the City Council sent to one another from computers at their homes. For more than a year, the Mayor of Colorado Springs read the electronic messages about city business that members of the City Council sent to one another from computers at their homes. The disclosure of the Mayor's mail perusal has not only touched off a bitter political dispute in the city but has also put a spotlight on problems in reconciling advances in computer technology with laws on open meetings, public records and personal privacy. The Mayor, Robert Isaac, has defended his actions, saying he monitored the council members' messages because he was concerned that they were using the system to hold illegal caucuses. Under Colorado law, City Council business, with a few exceptions, must be conducted at public forums. 'Public vs. Private Conflict' ''It's a good example of public versus private conflict in the face of new technology,'' said Carol Gould, a professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology, who has studied the ethical implications of computer networks. ''It's a problem that computer technology exacerbates, and it points to the importance of designing systems that distinguish between private communications and open public discussions.'' More broadly, the case has raised concern that actions like those of Mayor Isaac could undermine public trust in computerized technology designed to promote efficiency in civic affairs and to allow more residents to participate in their local government. ''It's serious,'' said Marc Rotenberg, national director of the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, an advocacy group. ''Because users of electronic mail systems should have a fundamental expectation of confidentiality, when that expectation is breached, the value of the network is undermined and a chilling effect on future use is likely to result.'' Some City Council members said that even if the Mayor's actions were legal, they undermined the political system. ''I did not know the Mayor was reviewing our mail,'' said Mary Lou Makepeace, a Council member. ''At the very least, it's bad manners.'' But at least two of the nine members said they had been aware that the Mayor had access to computer printouts of messages stored in the system. Only six members of the Council were using the computer system. $22,000 Computer System At the heart of the dispute is a | In Colorado, a Furor Over Computer Mail |
356405_6 | developed a detailed booklet outlining teaching strategies. They suggest that these children stay with the same teacher for more than a year, to help them trust adults, and that teachers work with a team of psychologists, social workers, and doctors, as well as with parents. Problem of Inattention Many children are what psychologists call ''disorganized,'' meaning that it is difficult for them to focus on one activity or one toy and learn from it. So teachers must guide them and help them talk out frustrations rather than hit or scream. The school has also enlisted speech and physical therapists to help children develop language and motor skills. Teachers at the Miriam de Soyza Learning Center in the Bronx have developed similar techniques in working with children exposed to crack who attend classes along with other children with a variety of emotional and physical handicaps. One 4-year-old child in Ann Doherty's classroom started this school year violent and self-destructive. He hit, bit and spit, banged his head on the floor and had difficulty controlling his movements. He did not speak and was not toilet-trained. Ms. Doherty spent hours with the boy, talking to him and hugging him. Slowly, she began introducing classroom rules, and if he acted violently, she picked him up, removed him from the classroom and rocked him in her lap while he screamed. Over several months, he began to hug teachers, nod his head, say a few words and participate in classroom tasks. He smiles at his teachers now, but he immediately hit a stranger who visited his classroom recently. ''I accepted him, so he liked me,'' Ms. Doherty said. ''He'll have to have a lot of one-on-one, and he has a one-minute attention span. It's very hard to work with drug-exposed kids and others at the same time. At the beginning it was all him, but there were seven other kids in the class.'' Teachers Worry Teachers at the Bronx preschool say they worry about what will happen to such children in public school. ''The schools are not set up either physically or with the staff or atmosphere to provide the kind of nurturing these children need,'' said Ora Nagenberg, public school coordinator. Ms. Nagenberg and others, including Dr. Marie Kanne Poulsen, a psychologist with Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, say some of these children have such obvious handicaps that they will qualify for special education programs. | CHILDREN OF CRACK: ARE THE SCHOOLS READY? - A SPECIAL REPORT: Crack Babies Turn 5, and Schools Brace |
352041_0 | LEAD: The West German state-controlled airline, Lufthansa A.G., said it and other parties were discussing the possibility of taking a minority stake in DHL Worldwide Express Inc., the courier service. A Lufthansa spokesman declined to provide any further details. He also would not identify the other parties involved in the talks. The West German state-controlled airline, Lufthansa A.G., said it and other parties were discussing the possibility of taking a minority stake in DHL Worldwide Express Inc., the courier service. A Lufthansa spokesman declined to provide any further details. He also would not identify the other parties involved in the talks. A spokesman for DHL's West German operations, based in Frankfurt, was unable to confirm or deny that talks were under way. Japan Air Lines said in Tokyo on Tuesday and it and DHL were considering whether to link their transport networks. The DHL Group, which is said to be world's largest document delivery service, has its European headquarters in Brussels. COMPANY NEWS | Lufthansa in Talks On DHL Holding |
352001_3 | They include a delayed reaction of the clitoris to stimulation, delayed or absent vaginal lubrication, lessened expansion of the vagina during intercourse, and fewer and sometimes painful uterine contractions during orgasm. All these changes reflect alterations in sensory stimulation and blood flow. Another common problem involves the woman's sex partner, who may develop sexual difficulties as a result of age, disease, lack of interest or in reaction to the woman's problem. Since there is evidence that continued sexual intercourse can help maintain a woman's sexual responsiveness and enjoyment indefinitely, a break in sexual continuity at menopause may limit her sexuality years later. In a study of 178 postmenopausal married women in London who were 35 to 62 years of age, conducted by Dr. Sarrel and co-workers, only 24 said they had no sexual problems. Among the 154 women who said they had sexual problems after menopause, 45 percent reported a loss of sexual desire and 10 percent said they had developed an aversion to sex. Twenty-seven percent could said they could no longer reach orgasm, and 43 percent complained of vaginal dryness and pain. In a second study of 50 couples, the researchers found that the women's partners were also affected by their wives' menopausal changes. Some men became impotent and others lost their ability to reach orgasm. The men also expressed feelings of rejection and anger, a fear of hurting their partners and concern about their ability to perform sexually. Prevention and Remedy A growing number of physicians are advising premenopausal women to start estrogen replacement therapy at the first hint of impending menopause. The woman may complain of irregular periods or hot flashes. Or, while doing a pelvic examn, the doctor may notice a thinning of the vaginal lining. Since ''use it or lose it'' seems to be an important component of continued sexual functioning after menopause, it is important not to delay seeking help for a sexual problem that may be related to estrogen decline. Moreover, such problems are usually easier to correct before they become advanced and complicated by emotional reactions. Estrogen replacement therapy, given orally or by a skin patch, is the most frequently prescribed remedy. In the London study, 28 of 38 women treated with estrogen were relieved of their sexual problems. Hormone replacement has the added advantage of delaying bone loss and helping to protect against heart disease. But the studies show that | Personal Health |
352053_6 | found quickly enough if the handset is in a fast-moving car. The new systems must hunt faster and more often because they use many more transmitters. J. Shelby Bryan, the chairman and chief executive of Millicom, said urban auto traffic sometimes moved fast enough to create such a problem for users of his company's system, but not very often, particularly in congested cities like New York. Transmitters that use the system in rural areas can use higher power and accommodate vehicles moving at up to 80 miles an hour, a spokesman for the Cable and Wireless consortium said. Millicom and any other company that wants to start a high-frequency cellular system in the United States must deal with the clutter of microwave signals. Many large corporations already use microwaves to carry their voice and data communications, bypassing the local telephone networks. The F.C.C. chose Houston and Orlando for the Millicom experiment because those cities already have a heavy volume of microwave traffic and the commission wants to determine whether interference will result, said Maureen P. Peratino, a spokeswoman for the commission. Improving Existing Systems Cellular companies are racing to expand the capacity of their systems by installing more and lower-powered transmitters and by developing digital switches that use computers to squeeze more calls on the same frequencies. The Nynex Mobile Communications Company is now creating transmitter areas in New York as small as one or two city blocks and may someday have transmitters that serve a single skyscraper, said James J. Gerace, a spokesman for the company. Within the next two years the company also will install digital switches that triple the number of calls handled on current frequencies, he said. For all the excitement about the new systems, justifying their expense may be difficult because it might be cheaper to upgrade existing cellular systems than to build another system, said Herschel Shosteck, a cellular telecommunications economist in Silver Spring, Md. The personal communications networks may eventually be offered to residential customers as well as businesses. In Britain, the systems will be offered to both urban and rural residential customers, allowing someone to walk to the park or drive to the store without leaving the telephone behind. Mercury Personal Communications, the consortium led by Cable and Wireless, plans to cover 30 percent of Britain's population with its transmitters by late 1992, 60 percent by 1994 and 97 percent by 1998. | A Phone in Your Pocket? Tryout Set for New Service |
352130_1 | the earth's ozone layer. A1 News analysis: Israel has emerged as the beneficiary of changing times in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, while the Arab world confronts the losses. A6 U.S. and Iran in accord on 2,500 small claims A6 A murder trial in Johannesburg is focusing unsolicited new attention on Winnie Mandela, the apartheid foe and wife of the African National Congress leader, Nelson Mandela. A3 Pope challenges rich nations to start sharing A11 Salvador rebels make new peace offer A3 Thailand's fast-growing economy is closely tied to Japanese investment. With a mixture of elation and misgivings, Thais sometimes talk about their country as Japan's newest ''economic colony.'' D1 Kabul journal: Afghan can thank his four-star aide for power A4 National A14-30, B12-14 The F.C.C. has awarded licenses for the creation and operation of a new type of cellular telephone network that will greatly expand the number of callers who can use cellular service simultaneously. A1 A computerized information system used by border agents to screen visitors to the U.S. is so flawed that major drug traffickers and other criminals may be able to cross the nation's borders without detection, Federal investigators say. A1 Democratic Congressional leaders told President Bush that they would accept his invitation to begin ''good faith'' budget negotiations, but hours later fierce skirmishing erupted in Congress over who would take the blame for any tax increases. B12 News analysis: The issue is not so much taxes as blame B12 Economic analysis: Economists see need for budget deal B13 Politicians seek sign from California on taxes B14 Change in Social Security for women is urged A27 The Senate Ethics Committee voted to conduct a full investigation of Senator Dave Durenberger's handling of Minneapolis condominium. A14 Bush discussion of contras is denied A30 The American tuna fleet was jolted by a decision last month by the nation's three largest sellers of canned tuna to stop selling fish caught in nets that also trap and kill dolphins. A1 Residents along the Trinity River in Texas, for the fourth time in a year, are waiting to lose everything to a flood. This torrent is expected to be the worst by far. A14 To save fish, judge curbs lowering of lake A22 Old error stalls focusing of space telescope A17 Mixed results reported for experimental AIDS drug A29 High death toll seen from passive smoking A25 California opens new | NEWS SUMMARY |
355694_0 | LEAD: The Environmental Protection Agency has prepared a draft report that says there may be links between cancer and electromagnetic fields created by common electrical current, an official of the agency said. The Environmental Protection Agency has prepared a draft report that says there may be links between cancer and electromagnetic fields created by common electrical current, an official of the agency said. The draft is based on a survey of existing scientific literature. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the draft will be reviewed by the agency's science advisory board. The draft suggests that children may be particularly susceptible to harm from the radiation. The agency has not issued a formal policy. Some studies suggest that electrical current alternating at 60 cycles per second, or 60 hertz, emits radiation that can cause biochemical changes, interfering with the functioning of genes and stimulating activity in biochemicals linked to the growth of cancer. Researchers, however, have said it is premature to make a direct link between 60-hertz current and cancer in humans. The question is of concern because such low-level radiation is pervasive. Distribution lines, home wiring circuits, computers, electric blankets and other appliances create 60-hertz fields. The environmental agency's report, disclosed tonight by the CBS Evening News, comes nearly a year after the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment issued a comprehensive background paper, which found ''legitimate reasons for concern'' but said it could not find ''a basis for asserting that there is a significant risk'' from the electromagnetic fields. | E.P.A. Draft Report Cites Studies Linking Cancer to Electricity |
357150_2 | Penske-Chevy, said the tires provided by Goodyear, the exclusive supplier here, weren't faulty but were just too soft for today's weather. ''If we'd've had this kind of weather early in the month, we'd've been on the backup compound,'' Mayer said. He was alluding to a slightly harder tire that Goodyear had available if teams wanted to use it. A harder tire is less likely to blister on a warm day, but it also provides less traction than softer, stickier tires. Fittipaldi's fast pace put more of a strain on the right rear tire because as it took the four left-hand turns on the two-and-a-half-mile oval, the back end of the car wanted to go out. A Speed/Stress Trade-off When a car handles like this, it's said to be ''loose.'' It's a faster way to go, but puts more strain on the right rear tire. Mayer said the problem didn't appear earlier in the race because the first two sets of tires the team used were broken in for 15 to 20 laps each earlier this month. This had cured the rubber, hardening it slightly. ''The later sets had only five or six laps in them,'' Mayer said. ''We didn't expect the tires to be that marginal.'' Leo Mehl, Goodyear's director of worldwide racing, said the faster teams outsmarted themselves. ''Many of the teams used higher air pressure in the right rear tire than we recommend,'' Mehl said. A tire that's inflated harder has less rolling resistance, and thus more speed. Mehl said that when the teams lowered the air pressure, the problem disappeared. 'Push' Factor for Rahal ''We have a backup compound,'' Mehl said, in response to Mayer. ''But racers will not use a backup compound if they fear they will lose too much speed.'' Rahal, who also avoided the tire blisters, said his team had followed Goodyear's inflation recommendations. Also, he said, his car had ''push'' all day, meaning the front end, not the back, was leaning more heavily to the right. Rahal said another kind of bad tire choice had allowed Luyendyk to pass him on lap 168 and pull away. ''On the last pit stop, we put some old tires on and we lost grip,'' he said. Rahal and Luyendyk also conserved their tires early in the race by running a slightly slower pace than Fittipaldi did. Luyendyk was usually several seconds behind the leaders while running | Luyendyk Wins in Fastest Indianapolis 500 Ever |
357159_3 | is trying to establish a brand identity for Simplesse just as it did for its sweetener, the world's first ''branded ingredient.'' Pursuading Consumers The strategy is designed to pursuade consumers to ask for the brand rather than the chemical, generic name. The generic name for Nutrasweet is aspartame, a combination of two naturally occurring proteins that is 180 times sweeter than sugar but has a fraction of the calories - two tenths of a calorie per gram compared with four calories in an amount of sugar with the equivalent sweetening power. The technical name for Simplesse is microparticulated protein, a substance that has less than half the calories of animal fat and no cholesterol. To make it, egg white and a protein found in whey, the watery constituent of milk, are simultaneously whipped and cooked into a ball-bearing-like consistency that fools the tongue into perceiving the feel of animal fat. The challenge for Nutrasweet is to achieve identity for Simplesse even though it is merely an ingredient in another product. In the case of its sweetener, Nutrasweet gave food and beverage customers a price break if they displayed the Nutrasweet swirl logo on their packaging, providing extensive ''piggy back'' advertising to create awareness among consumers. Two Big Customers In doing so, Nutrasweet had to attain only a small number of giant food and beverage concerns who use aspartame in their products. Indeed, it gained wide acceptance by convincing only two customers - Coca-Cola and Pepsi - to include Nutrasweet in their soft drinks. About 75 percent of all artificial sweetners go into soft drinks, according to the industry. In similar fashion, Nutrasweet will try to persuade food makers to display the stylized Simplesse logo, a spoon dipping into a dish, on their packaging. It is currently negotiating such an arrangement with Kraft General Foods for a salad dressing. Since both the sugar and fat substitutes are Nutrasweet inventions, the products are patented, giving them a legal monopoly. But when the patents expire - in December 1992 for Nutrasweet and 2005 for Simplesse - any competitor may then produce the substance and compete with the company, giving Nutrasweet good reason to establish a solid market before its monopoly expires. But Nutrasweet is also conscious of consumers' health concerns about low-calorie ingredient-substitutes. ''People are going to say, 'Sure it tastes good,' '' Mr. Shapiro remarked. ''But what are they - meaning scientists | Fake Fat: Another Sweet Deal? |
351792_1 | 48 years ago to set in motion the Nazi genocide. A12 The fight against AIDS in Romania has been hampered by a lack of equipment and slowed by a sluggish bureaucracy. Children, concentrated largely in the country's crowded and unsanitary orphanages, have been hit hardest by the disease. A10 A revolution of attitudes in China may be under way, with more families favoring the Government's population-control efforts. But China's population, which is the world's largest at 1.1 billion, is still increasing rapidly. A1 A secret American electronic device that can be used to detonate a nuclear bomb has been acquired by Iraq, President Saddam Hussein asserted. He also said Iraq was now able to manufacture such instruments itself. A5 Israelis defend arms-sale role A6 The Government in El Salvador vowed to cooperate in every way with a judge's investigation of the killings of six Jesuit priests and two women in November and to take action if obstacles are put in his way. A3 Pope, in Mexico, preaches harmony A3 De Klerk begins major tour of West Europe A7 A warm Thatcher but a cool press for Quayle A9 Aubagne journal: Glory days at an end for the Foreign Legion? A4 NATIONAL A14-27, B8 Budget cuts of up to $100 billion will be mandatory this fall unless Congress reaches agreement on major reductions in the deficit, the White House warned. A1 Bush seems concerned that the economy may slip B8 Experts on Hill sift taxes to see which to raise B8 Big cuts in real estate prices are planned by the Government to aid the savings and loan bailout. Large markdowns will be allowed on $16 billion worth of real estate that has been inherited from the seizure of troubled savings institutions. A1 A study prepared for the oil industry has cast doubt on a much-discussed method of reducing air pollution, concluding that requiring grain alcohol in gasoline will produce a minor reduction in carbon monoxide, but a large increase in smog. A1 A fire broke out on a Navy destroyer, killing one sailor and injuring 12 in the worst accident at sea since the Navy briefly halted operations for a safety review last November. A14 Navy stops seeking repayment from two gay students A19 Oliver L. North's private notebooks show that he met with Vice President George Bush just hours after he met with and lied to Congressmen in 1986 | NEWS SUMMARY |
351776_1 | landfills, in processes that burn tires as a fuel in place of coal, oil or wood, and in breaking up old tires into raw materials. Those materials can then be used in new rubber and plastic products or as substitutes for concrete in road paving. The problem: none of the recycling methods have been attractive enough economically even to keep up with newly disposed tires, much less make a dent in the existing mountain of scrap tires. ''It is simply cheaper to throw them away than to recycle,'' said Representative Esteban E. Torres. Democrat of California, in a bill filed in February to encourage tire recycling. The Torres bill and a similar measure in the Senate set out to change that economic balance. They would force the tire industry to recycle about a quarter of its products - and to increase that figure by about 5 percent annually - or buy ''permits'' from others who run tire recycling programs. Tire producers would get twice as much credit toward their quota, under the legislation, for tires that are recycled into new products as for tires burned as fuel. It is easy to see why backers of the bill feel that Government intervention is needed. Tires have been getting more complicated as manufacturers tinker with their design and composition to improve performance. In addition to natural and synthetic rubber, tires may now incorporate a wide range of chemicals, minerals, natural fibers and metals. No one wants to tell the manufacturers to stop improving tires. But each change seems to have added to the technical challenge of efficiently burning the tires or, better yet, breaking them down into components that can be re-used. Machinery Costly The machinery required to separate materials and cut the tire down to ''crumb rubber'' or even smaller salt-sized grains for easy reprocessing into new products can easily cost $2 million or more. When rubber is further reduced to particles the size of those in talcum powder, it can be cooked with various oils in devices known as digesters to make a polymer that can be easily molded into a wide variety of products. That expensive process, known as reclaiming, was used at more than 30 plants as late as the 1960's. But as tires became more complicated, tire companies shut down their reclaiming operations, and only two independents survive. ''It's pretty much a lost art,'' said Michael Rouse, | Shrinking the Old-Tire Mountain: Progress Slow |
351718_5 | women now travel away from their hometowns when they become pregnant, and give birth without ever registering their baby. And because of the decline in control, it is also possible for women to bribe doctors to remove their intrauterine devices, or IUD's, the most common form of birth control in China. Misguided Short-Term Goals China's population goals are at risk partly because the Government relaxed the Draconian controls it began implementing at the end of the 1970's. Some foreign diplomats worry that the authorities could institute a new policy including forced abortions and other harsh measures. But officials here, recalling the bad publicity China received around the world for such measures, say that will not happen. ''The situation is rather grave,'' said Shen Guoxiang, a spokesman for the State Family Planning Commission. ''But that doesn't mean we should tighten control over family planning.'' While China will almost certainly miss its target for the turn of the century, that goal is widely regarded as misguided. If China had been more successful in carrying out its one-child policy, experts say, a result would have been a rapid aging of the population and social strains as a relatively small number of workers supports an unusually large proportion of retired people. Concern about this problem appears to be one reason why China is not implementing the one-child policy as strictly as it used to. China's continuing population increase has more to do with demographics - half the population is 25 or younger, and so is still producing children or is yet to produce children - than with family size. But after this demographic bulge reaches middle age and retirement, the population is expected to contract. Accounts in the official Chinese press even muse that the nation's ''ideal'' population is 700 million, implying that this figure could be a longterm goal. A Closer Look at the Statistics Chinese officials and foreign commentators frequently say that Chinese women still have an average of nearly 2.5 children, despite the one-child policy. But this is misleading, Chinese and foreign demographers say. While China's total fertility rate is about 2.3, this statistic measures births for all women in their reproductive years, ages 15 to 49. Thus the figure includes some women in their 40's who bore three or four children long before family planning controls were introduced. A more accurate reflection of the present situation is the distribution of | More in China Willingly Rear Just One Child |
349830_0 | LEAD: Launching an operation to destroy 110 airstrips built by gold miners in Indian lands, Brazilian Army explosives experts dynamited a dirt strip in the northern Amazon jungle today. Launching an operation to destroy 110 airstrips built by gold miners in Indian lands, Brazilian Army explosives experts dynamited a dirt strip in the northern Amazon jungle today. Brazil's new President hopes to block thousands of gold seekers from re-invading lands belonging to the Yanomami Indians, the Amazon's last large Stone Age tribe. The President, Fernando Collor de Mello, ordered the operation after visiting the devastated area on March 24. Diseases borne by the miners and cultural disruption have ravaged the tribe's 10,000 members in Brazil, many of whom had no contact with the outside world until the late 1980's. Dissension Over Reserve Advocates for the Indians say the long-term survival of the Yanomami depends on President Collor's ordering that a unified, 36,367-square-mile reserve be set aside for the tribe in Roraima territory, 2,800 miles northwest of here. Despite a 10-year lobbying effort by Yanomami defenders, Mr. Collor's predecessor, Jose Sarney, ordered a reserve of only 9,402 square miles to be drawn up. This would consist of an archipelago of 19 reserves interspersed with two national forests and three ''gold mining reserves.'' Two weeks ago, a federal judge here ordered Brazil's federal police and Indian protection agency, Funai, to ignore Mr. Sarney's decrees and to remove all miners from the larger area. But in Roraima, resistance is high to setting aside a mineral-rich area the size of Indiana for the 10,000 Yanomami. ''We can't stay with our arms folded in front of a gold mountain,'' said Rubens Villar, who was appointed by Mr. Collor to serve as Governor of Roraima until elections are held in October. Number of Airstrips Grows Reflecting the explosive growth of gold mining in Yanomami lands, the number of illegal airstrips rose from 72 last June to 110 in January. But since January, virtually all the miners, about 25,000, have been expelled from Indian lands, Airton Alcantara Gomes, president of Funai, said in an interview here. In Boa Vista, Roraima's capital, gold traders on Gold Street complain that business has dropped 80 percent in recent weeks. In a city deprived of electrical power for long periods because of a failing municipal generator, many residents resent that the Government is to spend $800,000 to send helicopter teams to | Brazil Blows Up Miners' Airstrip, Pressing Its Drive to Save Indians |
349896_1 | in The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Tommy Storm, of Sundby Hospital in Copenhagen, and his colleagues reported that women who were treated with etidronate disodium and calcium for three years had far fewer fractures of the spine than women who took a dummy drug and calcium for comparison. ''I think it is an important study,'' said Dr. B. Lawrence Riggs, an osteoporosis researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Although two other treatments, estrogen and the bone-modeling hormone calcitonin, also significantly decrease the fracture rate, the new study ''gives another option,'' Dr. Riggs said. F.D.A. Approval to Be Sought Etidronate, made by Norwich Eaton Pharmaceuticals, a division of Procter & Gamble, prevents calcium from being lost from bone. Susan Dietrich, a spokeswoman for Norwich Eaton, said the company would soon apply to the Food and Drug Administration for approval to market the drug to treat osteoporosis. Its effectiveness is being examined in a study involving more than 400 patients at a number of medical centers in the United States. Osteoporosis, the most common bone disease, strikes many elderly men and women. In women, bone loss accelerates after menopause, often leading to a severe decline in bone mass. Weakened bones in the spine may collapse, causing back pain and a loss of height. Brittle bones in the hip may fracture, often requiring nursing home care. The new study involved 66 women 56 to 75 years of age who were randomly assigned to receive etidronate or a dummy pill. When etidronate was used previously, it prevented new bone from being formed to the same degree as it had stopped bone from being lost, leading to no net effect. #13-Week Rest Periods To avoid this difficulty, the Danish researchers instructed the women to take the medication in two-week cycles, followed each time by 13-week periods when they took no drugs. The rest period was intended to allow bone to build up again. The researchers report that the women who used etidronate had an average of six fractures per 100 patient years, while those taking the dummy pills had 54 fractures per 100 patient years. But neither group gained enough bone to make their bone mass normal. None of the three treatments for osteoporosis restores bone mass to normal, Dr. Riggs said. And the only way to know which is most effective would be to compare them in a clinical trial. | New Treatment Found to Reduce Bone Fractures From Osteoporosis |
349889_0 | LEAD: Legislators from 42 countries called today for a ''global Marshall plan'' under which industrial nations would help less developed countries grow economically while still protecting the environment. Legislators from 42 countries called today for a ''global Marshall plan'' under which industrial nations would help less developed countries grow economically while still protecting the environment. The three-day conference, presided over by Senator Al Gore, Democrat of Tennessee, ended here today. It did not specify how much such an effort might cost, but urged the richer countries to help finance environmentally benign growth in the third world. Delegates agreed to immediately begin steps to reduce the air pollution that many scientists believe triggers the process of global warming. The legislators who took part are not empowered to set policy for their Governments. Many of them said they would bring the proposals adopted by the meeting to their Parliaments and seek legislation. Some Specific Proposals These were among the specific proposals for legislative action: * Setting a worldwide target of reducing by half over the next 20 years the emission of industrial gases that are building up in the atmosphere. * Establishing national goals of achieving economic growth in ways that can be sustained without long-term damage to the world and national environments. The conference called for the creation of a ''green common market'' and proposed ''a bank for sustainable development'' to help finance growth in the third world without harming the environment. * Instituting a world strategy that links population growth with poverty and environmental degradation, and seeks to stabilize global population, now just over 5 billion, at 10 billion people. * Creating an ''international convention for the protection of all the world's forests,'' in both temperate and tropical regions. | World's Legislators Urge 'Marshall Plan' For the Environment |
349810_0 | LEAD: For years, Chinese have treated Western visitors to a glimpse of the Li River, which spills through a landscape of jutting mountains and misty skies that have inspired poets and painters for centuries. For years, Chinese have treated Western visitors to a glimpse of the Li River, which spills through a landscape of jutting mountains and misty skies that have inspired poets and painters for centuries. But now, as fewer Western tourists visit China's famous landscapes and historical sites, Chinese find themselves catering to another kind of visitor: the Taiwan tourist. Walk into any large hotel in a major city in China and there are probably Taiwanese there, filling the lobby with their lively chatter and carrying bags of strange-looking local specialties like dried squids, musk and tiger-bone plaster for arthritis. ''They know how beautiful the Guilin landscape is,'' said Liu Bijun, deputy general manager at China International Travel Service in Guilin in southern China. ''But they come here and to the rest of China because they want to know if it has changed in the last 40 years.'' A Long Separation Ends Taiwan allowed its citizens to come here only in late 1987, breaking a forced separation lasting nearly 40 years after the Nationalists fled to the island of Taiwan on their defeat in the Chinese civil war. Now its citizens travel here in large groups and fill the seats in Chinese planes and tour buses. They are far more noticeable now than last year, partly because their numbers are increasing at the same time those of other foreign tourists have dropped. Chinese tourist officials welcome the influx from across the Taiwan Straits as a way to help compensate for the losses suffered after the military crackdown on the democracy movement last June nearly caused the tourism industry to collapse. Asked about their occupancy rates recently, major hotels in Guilin, Shanghai and Xian said they were higher than last year, but still only 27 percent to 45 percent. It is the Taiwan visitors who are causing the statistics to rise throughout the country. ''There's no question that without the Taiwan groups we would be in a terrible situation,'' said Paul Hung, business manager at the Sheraton Guilin Hotel. The hotel has seen its occupancy rate climb from an average of 26 percent in January to 66 percent in March, with hardly any Americans. Special Routes Added China's main | Guilin Journal; China's Arms Wide Open for Army From Taiwan |
357801_2 | by a Citicorp unit in South Dakota in the 1980's, even though the state had passed laws to allow the practice. Bankers see insurance the agency business as a low-risk activity that could be profitable. Agents generally earn a fee of 5 to 10 percent of the insurance premium. Mr. Sebrik of Chase said he would not rule out the possibility that banks might accept lower fees as a way of getting business. To Act as Underwriters If banks chose to act as insurance underwiters, by accepting premiums and making payouts, the Delaware law requires them to set up separate units. For many years, banks around the country have been allowed to sell credit insurance that would repay a mortgage or other loan if the borrower died or was disabled. The new Delaware law permits banks chartered by the state to sell all kinds of insurance to customers across the country and act as the insurer. Besides obtaining Fed approval for the new insurance activities, large banking companies must check state laws to make sure they are licensed to sell insurance in the states where their customers are. Insurance agents, many of them one- or two-person shops that operate independently of major companies, are concerned that the marketing muscle of the banks' credit card businesses could help them gain a significant share of the insurance market. Citicorp, for example, can afford nationwide television advertisements. Credit Card Experience Bankers noted that they had previously used their credit card businesses as a conduit to offer other companies' insurance products. The experience gleaned from those sales efforts, like what kinds of insurance sell best and to what kinds of customers, will help future sales efforts, bankers said. Organizations representing insurance agents are already embroiled in lawsuits stemming from the willingness of Federal regulators in recent years to allow banks more leeway in selling insurance. In one case, the Comptroller of the Currency, the regulator for national banks, said in 1986 that permission for banks to sell insurance in towns with populations below 5,000 would also allow those banks to sell insurance outside those towns. Another insurance activity in which banks are keenly interested is the sale of annuities, which are typically linked to life insurance products. For years, national banks have been able to sell fixed annuities offering a promised interest rate. Earlier this year, the Comptroller allowed the sale of variable annuities. | Law Allows Banks to Sell Insurance |
357846_1 | the idea into her senior thesis. (She received an A.) Then she wrote to big corporations. Union Carbide gave her office space in its Manhattan headquarters; its chairman, Robert Kennedy, was the first recruit on Teach for America's board. Mobil Oil gave a $26,000 seed grant. Since last summer, Ms. Kopp has collected more than $700,000 from corporations and foundations. From Dallas, where she attended public and private schools, Ross Perot, the businessman, has put up a $500,000 challenge grant. Now, with 23 full-time staff members, Ms. Kopp is bringing Teach for America to life. The idea is simple: Enlist bright college graduates to teach in public schools for a minimum of two years. In exchange, permit them to defer their Federal student loan repayments, as the Government allows for those who work in school districts suffering teacher shortages. Student representatives and a team of trained recruiters searched for prospects at 100 top colleges and universities. They helped attract 2,600 applicants; 480 have already been accepted for the first class. The recruiting focus is on graduating seniors but anyone is eligible. Those selected will attend an eight-week summer institute at the University of Southern California and get practical experience as student teachers in Los Angeles, which operates year-round schools. By September the young teachers will be assigned to Los Angeles, New York, New Orleans, Baton Rouge and rural districts in North Carolina and Georgia. They will be hired under existing alternative certification procedures. Dennis Gooding, a black who majored in political science at Yale, is a typical recruit. ''The school system has a lack of sensitivity that I want to address in a personal way,'' he says. ''There are a lot of talented high school students who get written off.'' Mr. Gooding, 22, hopes to teach history in a New York City high school. Emilio Gonzales, a 21-year-old who just graduated from Columbia, will go home to Los Angeles to be a bilingual elementary school teacher. He seeks to overcome the disadvantages suffered by students in low-income districts. ''If you get a kid thinking interesting thoughts, there's no telling what might happen if he's given an opportunity. That's what it's all about, isn't it?'' That's the spirit of Teach for America. With additional financial support, more school districts will be able to take advantage of the enthusiasm and commitment to education that Wendy Kopp has tapped among privileged young Americans. | Teach for America |
357721_0 | LEAD: Sugar futures prices fell yesterday for the second consecutive day on the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange in New York in reaction to a report of increased sugar production and a supply surplus. Sugar futures prices fell yesterday for the second consecutive day on the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange in New York in reaction to a report of increased sugar production and a supply surplus. On other markets, grain and soybean futures were mostly lower, energy futures gained, precious metals contracts fell, and livestock and pork futures retreated. On Tuesday, the West German statistics firm F. O. Licht reversed its world sugar deficit estimate of 57,000 metric tons to a surplus of 694,000 metric tons. Licht also revised production and consumption figures, placing production in the season ending Aug. 30, 1990, at 108.55 million metric tons, up from 107.91 million. Consumption was revised down to 107.86 million metric tons from 108.07 million. A Contrary Indication Analysts said sugar futures contracts for coming months continue to trade at a premium compared with later-month contracts despite the report, an indication that a surplus does not exist. Sugar settled 0.27 to 0.38 cent lower, with the contract for delivery in October at 13.70 cents a pound. On Tuesday, sugar prices fell by even larger amounts. Judith Ganes, a commodity analyst with Merrill Lynch in New York, said Licht issued a statement yesterday indicating Tuesday's selloff was overdone. But she said the selloff should help stimulate demand for sugar. ''If you don't see major users come in at this level, prices will continue to slide,'' she said. Grain Prices Lower Grain futures prices closed lower and soybeans were mixed on the Chicago Board of Trade. The expectation of drier conditions sent corn futures lower. The weather will allow many farmers to finish remaining corn planting. Soybeans prices were marginally lower as traders consolidated positions after a selloff Tuesday. Reports of possible offers from Asia for United States soybeans gave some support to soybean prices. Wheat was 1 cent to 4 cents lower, with July at $3.32 1/4 a bushel; corn was 3 to 4 3/4 cents lower, with July at $2.79 1/2 a bushel; oats were 3 1/4 to 3 3/4 cents lower, with July at $1.42 1/2 a bushel; soybeans were 1 3/4 cents lower to 3 cents higher, with July at $6.05 1/4 a bushel. Energy futures were higher on | Sugar Prices Off on Report Of Production and Surplus |
323641_3 | dwindle since the crackdown. From January to June last year, there were 133 new projects worth $260 million by American investors, a Western diplomat estimated. The diplomat said that from July to December, only 66 projects worth $150 million were started, and most of these were begun before the crackdown. The first half of this year will be more telling, since those who have invested less time in start-up negotiations may not feel burdened to continue their projects. Some companies who tried to pull out of their contracts apparently were not allowed to do so by the Chinese, diplomats say. After the crackdown, many foreign companies facing dimmer commercial prospects hoped that Chinese bureaucrats would be more conciliatory at the negotiating table to restore the confidence of overseas investors. Some were offered interviews with senior officials, ministry-level bureaucrats, and at times, an audience with the Communist Party General Secretary himself, Jiang Zemin. Foreign companies that demonstrated their commitment to China were thanked effusively and given encouragement. Some hope still lies in the prospect this spring that China will change the joint-venture law, extending the allowable term of a venture and authorizing the appointment of foreigners as a venture's chairman. No Widespread Concession Yet so far the high visibility has not led to widespread concessions, diplomats and business executives say. Only a small number of companies have obtained better terms, notably a foreign real estate developer in Tianjin. In fact, executives say some authorities, in an attempt to prove they are not to be cowed by foreigners, have actually become less cooperative with foreign companies. ''Despite the public relations, the environment for getting concessions is not easier, but harder,'' a Western diplomat here said. ''There are regulations that may have been in place already, but now there is a trend to enforcing the regulations that people overlooked before.'' Seacliff is negotiating with Shanghai's local government for greater concessions, primarily on property taxes and an extension on its current 18-year land lease. But the Shanghai government, which has auctioned off expensive land-use rights for 50 years to a foreign company, might not want to offer a 50-year or even 40-year lease to the Shanghai Center at a bargain price for fear of offending its other client. A Chinese business official familiar with the negotiations indicated that Seacliff would probably get an extension, although it was not clear for how long. Commercial Reputation | Headaches in China for Investors |
323591_0 | LEAD: The horrors of nuclear war are hard to exaggerate. That hasn't stopped proponents of the ''nuclear winter'' theory, who announced in 1983 that the soot from a large nuclear war would blot out sunlight and create weeks of icy darkness. The result could be ''global environmental changes sufficient to cause the extinction of a major fraction of the plant and animal species on the Earth,'' wrote a group of eminent biologists in Science magazine. The horrors of nuclear war are hard to exaggerate. That hasn't stopped proponents of the ''nuclear winter'' theory, who announced in 1983 that the soot from a large nuclear war would blot out sunlight and create weeks of icy darkness. The result could be ''global environmental changes sufficient to cause the extinction of a major fraction of the plant and animal species on the Earth,'' wrote a group of eminent biologists in Science magazine. ''In that event, the possibility of the extinction of Homo sapiens cannot be excluded.'' Predicting the extinction of humankind is incautious, as Paul Ehrlich, Peter Raven, Carl Sagan, George Woodwell, Thomas Eisner, Stephen Gould, Robert May, Ernst Mayr and others would probably now acknowledge. New calculations suggest something less apocalyptic. Far from chilling the continents to 40 degrees centigrade below freezing, temperatures, according to recent estimates, wouldn't even drop to freezing. A nuclear chill, maybe, but hardly winter. These new calculations don't make the world safe for a nuclear exchange: the primary effects of nuclear war were quite terrifying enough before the forecasts of nuclear winter. But they raise anew the old question of how far to believe even eminent experts who warn of doomsday unless society heeds their prescriptions. The nuclear winter episode bears directly on present discussion of the greenhouse effect - the feared warming of the world's climate by pollutant gases. Here are some lessons relevant to both issues: Beware scientists grinding axes. Despite the impersonal style of articles in scientific journals, the authors still have passions and pet policies that may affect the conclusions. The proponents of the nuclear winter hypothesis also advocated reduction of nuclear weapons. It turns out they did not err on the side of minimizing the effects of nuclear winter. Environmentalists who warn of greenhouse warming know they have to guard against similar predilections. Don't expect instant answers. The status of nuclear winter has evolved considerably. Discussion of the greenhouse effect is gradually | The Editorial Notebook; Lessons of Nuclear Winter; Impassioned Experts Blow Hot and Cold |
323575_0 | LEAD: A group of Japanese businessmen has offered to buy Brazil's $115 billion in foreign debt in exchange for mining rights for gold deposits in the Amazon, the Brazilian newspaper O Globo said today. A group of Japanese businessmen has offered to buy Brazil's $115 billion in foreign debt in exchange for mining rights for gold deposits in the Amazon, the Brazilian newspaper O Globo said today. The newspaper said the Bishimetal Corporation, subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Corporation, had proposed assuming the debt in exchange for full rights over the gold fields, which O Globo said were worth $260 billion. Mitsubishi officials and Japanese politicians presented the idea to President Jose Sarney last year, the paper said. The proposal is not likely to win much favor in Brazil, where public opinion would be against handing over the gold resources to another nation. But Brazilian officials said they would study the proposal, the newspaper said. No one was available for comment at the Japanese Embassy in Brasilia or at Mitsubishi's Brazilian subsidiary in Rio. Brazilian officials have long rejected foreign proposals to cancel or swap part of the debt in exchange for preserving the Amazon rain forest, calling the schemes an impingement on Brazil's sovereignty. Brazil produced about 100 tons of gold in 1988, 78.5 tons of it from free-lance prospectors. INTERNATIONAL REPORT | Japanese Bid Seen in Brazil |
323635_8 | possible to have a successful dance career outside New York City. Dancers have been the poorest paid performers in the arts, a fact borne out by the 1980 census, which found dancers' salaries to be 45 percent below the average for all artists. But the standard of living has risen somewhat for dancers performing in major modern-dance and ballet companies, which are increasingly unionized, around the nation. Dancers also are at a higher level of technical virtuosity than ever before. ''We have the largest, best trained core of young people trained in dance that any country has ever had,'' said Mr. Lowry, who developed the Ford Foundation's groundbreaking 1963 grants program for dance schools and companies. New Means of Support There are new advocacy and support systems as well. A coalition of dance companies, presenters, state and regional arts agencies and national service organizations helped the arts endowment put together its promising new Dance on Tour program, to take effect in the 1991-92 season. Grants from the program's $1.1 million budget, which must be matched by recipients, will be awarded to regional arts agencies and state arts organizations. The agencies will convene panels to review applications for money from presenters, whose newly important curatorial role may be one of the major developments of dance in the 1990's. The state organizations will apply directly to the National Endowment for the Arts for projects that support the presentation of dance. And the 1990's? Mr. Lowry worries about finding jobs for the newest generation of dancers, and about a general loss or leveling of standards that has resulted, he said, in the belief that ''everything is as good as everything else.'' Ms. Kirn urges that dance ''look video straight in the eye'' and learn to use it to educate, document and compete as entertainment in the increasingly important electronic media. ''I guess the issues for dance companies are not so different than they used to be: time, money and place,'' Mrs. Kriegsman said. ''I think the transmission of dance - the question of continuity and succession - by the masters, the teachers, is going to be a key one.'' Mark Russell, director of Performance Space 122 in Manhattan, said he thinks dance is stronger now than it was during the boom years. ''We've gone from birthing to a sort of adolescence,'' he said. ''I think we're trying to clean up our acne now.'' | After the Boom, Tough Times for Dance |
329051_2 | American forces. In response, Foreign Minister Taro Nakayama was said to have called the American proposals ''prudent and appropriate.'' But Japanese officials said Mr. Kaifu and Mr. Nakayama stressed that it was premature to think that East Asian and the Pacific were places of defused tension like Europe. In a larger sense, Japanese officials say privately that they are worried that an overall reduction of the American presence in Asia would reawaken fears in other parts of the region about the growing influence of Japan. Fear of Tokyo Military Threat They say the United States is a healthy influence that reassures Asian countries that they need not fear the possibility of a Japanese military threat that would follow its expanding economic influence down the road. According to a Japanese official, Mr. Nakayama told Mr. Cheney that despite welcome changes in other parts of the world, ''we have to be mindful of elements of instability and unpredictability'' in Asia. The official quoted Mr. Cheney as in agreement, and responding in the meeting, ''Over all, the Asian Pacific situation has not seen as much improvement as we have seen in the European theater.'' American officials said Mr. Cheney has tried to avoid specific numbers in addressing the question of how best to reduce the general presence of American forces in Asia. But they said that 10 percent was a general goal, and that specifics would be worked out by military commanders. Difficult Philippine Visit The United States troop presence in East Asia and the Pacific consists of about 50,000 troops in Japan, 43,000 in South Korea and 18,000 in the Philippines. Mr. Cheney said a ''ballpark figure'' of 5,000 to 6,000 was the goal in Japan. Last week, Mr. Cheney persuaded the South Korean Defense Minister, Lee Sang Hoon, to accept in principle the gradual withdrawal of about 5,000 noncombatants from that country. American officials said the Philippine Defense Minister, Fidel V. Ramos, also had ''agreed in principle'' on a reduction. The rockiest part of Mr. Cheney's trip has been the visit to the Philippines, American officials said. There, President Corazon C. Aquino declined to meet with Mr. Cheney, in protest against American plans to reduce American economic aid to Manila. In his meeting with Mr. Ramos, Mr. Cheney promised ''to do what he could to get the full amount pledged'' given to the Philippines, according to Pete Williams, the Pentagon spokesman. | Japan Backs Cheney's Troop-Cut Plan |
329062_0 | LEAD: Even though frozen desserts made with Nutrasweet's new fat substitute will be in grocers' freezers this summer, the Monsanto Company subsidiary is unlikely to find itself gorging on profits for years. Even though frozen desserts made with Nutrasweet's new fat substitute will be in grocers' freezers this summer, the Monsanto Company subsidiary is unlikely to find itself gorging on profits for years. As with any new product, it might take several years for Simplesse, as the ingredient is called, to recoup the money it took to develop and market it, food industry analysts say. This is particularly true in this case, because for now the Food and Drug Administration has approved the product for use only in ice cream-like desserts. Even so, Monsanto stock, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, rose by $4.375 a share today to close at $112.25, with some analysts predicting an immense demand for Simplesse products, given the growing national concern for healthy diets. In 1989, Nutrasweet had $869 million in sales for its artificial sweetener aspartame, accounting for just 10 percent of Monsanto's sales and 16.7 percent of the company's net operating profits, analysts at Salomon Brothers said. Monsanto, based in St. Louis, makes most of its money selling industrial and agricultural chemicals. $500 Million in Sales Possible While many analysts were reluctant to guess the potential market for fat substitutes, some said that within five years Simplesse could generate $300 million to $500 million in sales. David L. Morley, group vice president of the Simplesse group, declined to disclose any projections for the product. He also declined to disclose the advertising budget for Simplesse. Still, Simplesse is Nutrasweet's long-awaited second act. Until now, the company's sole product had been the highly successful aspartame, which has found wide acceptance in soft drinks and foods since it was introduced in 1981. There had been mounting pressure on Nutrasweet to develop another product because the exclusive patents it holds on aspartame will start to expire around the world in 1992. At a news conference in New York,the company said it would follow the same ''branded ingredient'' strategy that helped make Nutrasweet, itself a substitute ingredient, a household name. The company said the line of Simplesse frozen desserts, called Simple Pleasures, would be marketed through a newly formed subsidiary, the Simplesse Company, based in Skokie, Ill., a few miles from Nutrasweet's Deerfield headquarters. Little Immediate Impact | Monsanto Shares Up Sharply On Hopes for Fat Substitute |
325472_11 | be operated in conjunction with the telescope, each capable of making different but somewhat overlapping observations. Two of these will be cameras, which will produce the mission's most tangible results. The wide-field-and-planetary camera developed at the California Institute of Technology and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is actually two cameras in one. Operating in the wide-field mode, it will survey entire galaxies at a resolution about 10 times better than any ground-based telescope. In the planetary mode, the camera's field of view is narrower, but big enough to display the whole disk of Jupiter; it should be sensitive enough to see Uranus and Neptune better than ground-based telescopes do. The faint-object camera, built by the European Space Agency, complements the other camera, but is specially designed to detect distant objects; it will see celestial bodies 50 times as faint as any so far seen from the ground, according to O'Dell. Two spectrographs break up the light into the spectrum, allowing scientists to analyze the chemical composition, temperatures and magnetic fields of celestial objects. The simplest instrument on board will be the high-speed photometer, a very sensitive light meter that measures the intensity, wavelength and other properties of the light. The sixth of these instruments, a set of fine guidance sensors (which have three ''pickle shaped'' segments, according to Longair's description), points the telescope at its target. They will measure star positions 10 times more accurately than has been done, findings that should be invaluable in establishing distance scales in the universe. All of the instruments are sensitive to ultraviolet light, a part of the electromagnetic spectrum that is especially obscured by the atmosphere. The telescope itself is also sensitive to a portion of the infrared wavelength, which could be measured by instruments installed in the future. Sitting in his Princeton office one morning recently, John Bahcall let his thoughts drift back to the early planning days and to one colleague in particular, Robert Danielson, a professor of planetary science at Princeton who did preliminary design studies for the telescope's cameras. ''Bob had a blood disease he knew to be terminal, and was in great pain,'' Bahcall says. ''I carried his briefcase for him to meetings, and once, toward the end, I asked him why he kept on. He told me, because it was the most important thing he could do with the time left him. I think we all felt that | THE SEARCH FOR THE BEGINNING OF TIME |
325567_1 | the next 40 years. ''If we have not succeeded by 2030,'' he said, ''environmental deterioration and economic decline will be feeding on each other, causing social structures to disintegrate.'' The report suggests elements of an economy that could be sustained over the long run. In general, these include cutting the growth of population below currently projected rates, stabilizing emissions of industrial gases that are accumulating in the atmosphere and are expected to change global climate, and eliminating the loss of forest cover and plant and animal species. The report also says there must be a more equitable distribution of the world's riches, with a narrower gap between rich and poor countries. The report contends that a global population of 9 billion by the year 2030, as projected by the United Nations, would not permit a sustainable world economy. Birth rates in developing countries like Ethiopia, India and Nigeria are already pressing against the limits of food supplies and other resources, the report says. It contends that a global population stabilized at 8 billion is the maximum that could be sustained comfortably. Solar Power to Grow Because of the potentially ''catastrophic'' changes caused by fossil fuels, the report predicts, ''the world economy of 2030 will not be powered by coal, oil and natural gas.'' Instead, it says there will be heavy reliance on solar power in all its forms, including solar thermal power and wind power. Carbon emissions, the report says, must be reduced to one-eighth of the current levels to ward off changes that could wreak havoc on the global economy. The report predicts that there will be much less reliance on private automobiles and a greater reliance on public transportation and, in urban areas, on bicycles, which are increasingly used in many countries in Asia and Europe. Profound Shifts Required If a sound economy is achieved over the next 40 years, it will also rely heavily on recycled materials and much less on virgin materials, the institute's researchers say. The destruction of tropical forests will have ceased, they predict, and much of the world will be reforested. But the report said none of these changes can take place without shifts in ''the social, economic and moral character of human societies.'' Above all, ''movement to a lasting society cannot occur without a transformation of individual priorities and values,'' it said. ''Materialism simply cannot survive the transition to a sustainable world.'' | 40-Year Countdown Is Seen for Environment |
325286_1 | the smaller Cooper Tire Company remains independent. Goodyear, the leader for decades, is contending for second place with the Bridgestone Corporation of Japan, which two years ago bought Firestone. Next come West German Continental A.G., which bought General Tire; Pirelli S.p.A. of Italy (Armstrong), and the Sumitomo Tire and Rubber Company of Japan (Dunlop). Two smaller Japanese makers, the Yokohama Rubber Company and the Toyo Tire and Rubber Company, are both concentrated in the Far East. Consolidation has intensified competition to cut production costs and increase quality. The industry has become surprisingly high-tech, spending more than $1 billion on research and development last year, up by one-third from five years ago. The Research Now It's Microchips Instead of Road Tests At Goodyear's vast research and development center in Akron, the rubber meets the microchip before it meets the road. Rows of technicians at computer work stations design tires. They test them with programs that seem like video games. On screen, cars whip through courses with potholes, ice slicks and hairpin turns. A decade ago, designing a tire for a new automobile model required testing 200 to 300 tires. Today, it takes about 65. ''In the last few years, tire designing has moved from an empirical art to a science, because of the computer,'' said F. Vincent Prus, Goodyear's executive vice president for research and development. The major tire companies are spending freely on research and development. They are buying computers to test tire durability, traction, fuel efficiency, compatibility with new car designs and even noise. Analysts consider Goodyear the research leader. The company spent $300 million on research and development last year, or 3.5 percent of revenues - up from 2.5 percent five years ago. Companies are also using research to cut costs, especially for original equipment, the tires that auto makers buy for new cars. Although original equipment sales account for just a quarter of production, nearly 70 percent of consumers replace their tires with the brand that came with the car. Since auto companies want a distinctive tire design for each new model, tire makers are striving to develop lines more quickly. Goodyear says computer-aided design helped cut development time from 117 weeks in 1980 to 65 weeks last year. The goal: 20 to 25 weeks by 1995. The Chemistry Exotic Synthetics Mean More Mileage Tire company executives say the public believes their jobs are no more complicated | All About/The Tire Industry; Decreasing Demand and Global Competition Propel Consolidation |
325714_0 | LEAD: TWO former General Foods executives and a personal fitness trainer think they know what the future of food technology holds - and they have formed a company based on their belief. TWO former General Foods executives and a personal fitness trainer think they know what the future of food technology holds - and they have formed a company based on their belief. The former executives, Adolph S. Clausi and Dr. Nabil El-Hag, and Dr. El-Hag's wife, Gail Montgomery, a physical trainer, are banking on a growing demand for freshly prepared convenience foods and the national preoccupation with fitness. Following two years of research and development and an investment of several million dollars, they started their company, Fresh 'n' Fit, last April, to market fresh calorie-controlled meals. Their products are available through home delivery in Westchester and Greenwich or at the company's headquarters in Mount Kisco. ''Refrigerated prepared foods are a growth industry, with an expected 45 percent increase in sales projected over the next five years,'' said Dr. El-Hag, who at 42 years old is a leader in the field of refrigerated food and processing technology and who is writing a reference book on the subject. After 14 years with General Foods, most recently as vice president of technical research and business development, he decided to leave to become an entrepreneur after the company was bought by Kraft in 1987. Mr. Clausi, 67, agreed with Dr. El-Hag's assessment of the industry: ''I believe home delivery of fresh quality convenience food will become the big business of the 90's, much as the Bird's-Eye introduction of frozen foods revolutionized the food industry in its day.'' He joined General Foods as a chemist in 1946 and retired in 1987 as senior vice president and chief research officer of the worldwide corporation. Mr. Clausi was in charge of 1,600 people and oversaw a $30 million research and development budget. He holds 13 food-technology patents and many industry awards. Mr. Clausi said market surveys showed that consumers wanted healthier convenience foods that tasted appreciably better than the frozen dinners now in the supermarkets. ''If chilled prepared foods are priced near frozen and at the same time deliver a fresher taste, they'll gain a large share of the market,'' he said.''That's what we're banking on.'' Ms. Montgomery, who holds many awards for body-building competitions, said she came up with the idea for Fresh 'n' Fit | Room Service at Home (and It's Healthy) |
322733_1 | motivated attacks by the ''white media'' and ''co-consipiring government agents.'' He described the three Congressional colleagues who had asked the committee to investgate the ethics complaint against him as ''self-appointed guardians of personal morality'' and questioned their ''sensitivity to racism.'' The ethics committee has declined to say what decision it reached until its report on the case is issued. But a copy of the report, obtained by The Associated Press, said the committee concluded that Mr. Savage made improper ''sexual advances'' to a female Peace Corps volunteer in Zaire last March. The news agency said the report went on to say that while the panel found his behavior contrary to House rules requiring that the conduct of members reflect creditably on the House. The report said Mr. Savage had ''acknowledged that he may have acted inappropriately as evidenced by his letter,'' the news agency reported. Mr. Savage made no mention of the apology letter in his speech and specifically denied having written one when asked about it by reporters earlier today. The ethics investigation stemmed from allegations by the Peace Corps volunteer that the Congressman, while on an official visit to Zaire, repeatedly fondled her against her will in the back seat of a chauffeur-driven embassy car. The Peace Corps worker, who has been identified only as a young black woman, and who is not named in the report, reported the incident to her supervisors and talked about it in an interview with The Washington Post last July. The three members of Congress asked the ethics committee to pursue the inquiry after they read of the article. They are Representatives Patricia Schroeder of Colorado, Matthew F. McHugh of upstate New York and Barney Frank of Massachusetts. any wrongdoing again today in his speech on the House floor. He said the committee had found insufficient evidence to warrant ''even a slap on the wrist.'' But the specifics of the case and its disposition were overshadowed by the emotional speech Mr. Savage delivered to a virtually empty House chamber. Nearly all House Democrats are out of Washington today at a private legislative conference and most were not available for comment. In Mr. Savage's remarks, he assailed what he called the ''racism, unaccountability and concentrated private power of white television and newspapers.'' A written version of the statement, distributed earlier to reporters by the Congressman's press secretary, had referred to the lawmakers who | Congressman in Sex Case Bitterly Attacks Critics |
324505_0 | LEAD: Among the classic Greek tragedies, Euripides' ''Medea'' probably strikes the brightest sparks in contemporary imaginations. Its story of a woman who lashes back at the man who betrayed her after she had saved his life and engineered his ascent to power is one of the most potent revenge fantasies of all time. Among the classic Greek tragedies, Euripides' ''Medea'' probably strikes the brightest sparks in contemporary imaginations. Its story of a woman who lashes back at the man who betrayed her after she had saved his life and engineered his ascent to power is one of the most potent revenge fantasies of all time. And in today's fractious marital climate of child custody battles and warring sexual ideologies, it touches several nerves at once. Because ''Medea'' is a drama of pure passion, even the most superficially conceived production ought at least to churn up a froth of soap opera histrionics. But the Pearl Theater Company's ''Medea'' is so cold, inept and mechanical that the only feelings it awakens are twinges of dismay and embarrassment. The staging of modest but professional productions of theater classics is supposed to be the forte of the Chelsea-based repertory company. Yet its ''Medea'' has the feel and look of an unfinished amateur production. As directed by Shepard Sobel, the actors are at such loose ends that they perform mostly without facial expression and often with hands tentatively outstretched as though groping for the very meaning of the words. The line readings of dialogue, based on E. P. Coleridge's translation, rarely break away from the singsong iambic meter of the verse. The stage entrances are so poorly prepared that when a character appears, the actor playing him often has the slightly dazed look of someone who has unexpectedly found himself shoved out from the wings. The saddest thing about the production is that it involves reputable actors like Joanne Camp, who has distinguished herself in ''The Heidi Chronicles'' and ''Coastal Disturbances.'' Speaking her lines in a clenched, icy monotone that precludes any glimpses of fury or sorrow, she doesn't suggest a figure of Greek tragedy so much as a neurotic, emotionally repressed housewife having a prolonged snit. Ms. Camp's performance is at least consistent with the rest of the ensemble who, even when raising their voices, seem as stiff and impassive as talking statues. REVENGE FANTASY - MEDEA, by Euripides, based on a translation by | Reviews/Theater; A Cool Medea Lashes Back At the Man Who Jilted Her |
323972_2 | gazelles, blue sheep and, in the higher elevations, snow leopards. Some of the animals are found nowhere else on earth. Dr. Schaller, who is the only Western biologist working in the region, disclosed last week in New York that he and Chinese officials had agreed to create in the Qian Tang what they say will be the world's largest wildlife reserve. It would be about the size of Colorado and cover about one-fifth of Tibet's area. Qian Tang (pronounced chahng tahng), meaning ''northern plain,'' is largely unexplored, mostly undisturbed and all but uninhabited. Only a few herdsmen enter it at certain seasons to hunt for meat and hides. The herdsmen will still be allowed to do so under the letter of intent signed by Dr. Schaller and Chinese officials last Nov. 29 in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. But all other hunting will be prohibited, and the Chinese Government will manage the reserve as a protected area, with both expert help and material aid from Wildlife Conservation International. Fear of Lost Opportunity As with the American Plains a century or two ago, development is already lapping at the edges of the planned reserve. If the worldwide urge ''to develop the last bit of land for human use'' is given free play there, Dr. Schaller said, hunting, mining and other commercial activities will despoil the region and a ''unique opportunity'' will slip away. In pursuit of that opportunity, he has made four expeditions to the Qian Tang along with Chinese and Tibetan colleagues over the last decade. He is planning to make a fifth this summer in a massive effort to delineate and define the ecosystem and its inhabitants, an essential first step in any conservation program. The Chinese Government appears serious about preserving the Qian Tang and if the effort succeeds, he said, it will demonstrate a commitment by China to ''the rational use of its resources.'' It would also be a dramatic demonstration of Dr. Schaller's belief that governments around the globe are at last starting to recognize seriously that the destruction of ecosystems, with all the resources they contain, cannot go on. ''The world as a whole is beginning to wake up to the realities,'' he said. Dr. Schaller comes honestly to a global perspective. Born in 1933, the son of a German diplomat in Berlin, he lived in a number of European capitals as a child. He came | Field Biologist With Daunting Mission: Saving a Corner of the World |
323968_2 | already be used as an analytical tool that will speed up the process of conventional genetic breeding by enabling scientists to crossbreed plants in half the ordinary time. The map enables breeders to identify an individual plant containing a specific trait without waiting for the plant to mature. With the regeneration of rice plants from protoplasts and the transfer of DNA to them, scientists have now established ''the prototype for the whole spectrum of genetic manipulations that one wants to carry out on rice,'' said Edward C. Cocking, a British biotechnologist and professor of botany whose laboratory at the University of Nottingham was one of the first to achieve both steps. So far, this emerging technique in genetic manipulation is the only one found to work for cereals, although other techniques have succeeded with tomatoes, potatoes and tobacco. Scientists expect that within two years, they will be able to transform a rice plant genetically so that it will resist an especially destructive disease, rice tungro virus, that stunts the growth of rice plants and can devastate whole fields. If the effort succeeds, it could be the first use of genetic engineering to improve a cereal crop. Experts outside the program say that while difficulties lie ahead, the goal is realistic and the program offers the main hope for further improvement in rice productivity through genetics. In conventional rice genetics, two parent plants can produce hybrid offspring with desirable traits, but the hybrids often display other, unwanted characteristics that are difficult and time-consuming to breed out. With genetic engineering, it is possible to select the exact trait that is desired, and no other. It can then be incorporated into a protoplast that produces a new plant with none of the unwanted characteristics. The Limits of Genetics Conventional rice genetics ''is now at a plateau,'' said Tranh Ton That, a rice expert with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, who is also the executive secretary of the organization's International Rice Commission. The next major advances, he said, may well come from genetic engineering. ''I don't know if it will succeed,'' he said of the new surge in research, ''but it seems to me that it is very promising.'' The effort ''could have remarkable effects'' on worldwide rice production, said Nyle Brady, who has been Director General of the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, a consultant to the | Bioengineering Points to Better Rice Plant |
326866_0 | LEAD: World trade negotiators agreed today on a plan of action to liberalize trade in the $100 billion tropical products market, ending months of stalemate. World trade negotiators agreed today on a plan of action to liberalize trade in the $100 billion tropical products market, ending months of stalemate. The agreement clears the way for a new accord to reduce import barriers and duties on products like nuts, coffee and spices. The agreement would be signed when the current round of talks under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade ends in December. Under the plan, each GATT member has to submit proposals for eliminating or reducing its own tariffs and non-tariff measures to the Geneva-based secretariat by March 15. Negotiators will then meet in April to discuss whether the various proposals go far enough. When the four-year Uruguay Round was begun in Punta del Este in 1986, governments agreed to consider eliminating duties on unprocessed tropical products, abolishing or cutting duties on semiprocessed and processed products and eliminating or cutting quotas and other non-tariff measures. A new accord on free trade in tropical products is regarded as vital by third world countries, many of which are dependent on export earnings from these commodities. GATT is the main international forum for sponsoring trade negotiations. Its 96 members account for about four-fifths of world trade. | Plan to Free Tropical Trade |
326805_0 | LEAD: A panel of experts convened by the National Academy of Sciences said today that the United States had fallen decades behind Europe in the development of contraceptives and called for Government action to stimulate research on birth control. A panel of experts convened by the National Academy of Sciences said today that the United States had fallen decades behind Europe in the development of contraceptives and called for Government action to stimulate research on birth control. The report said research on contraception had declined in this country because of lawsuits against the makers of birth control devices and drugs for damages caused by their products, political fights over abortion, Federal drug approval policies that consider only the risks of new contraceptives and a lack of Government financing. For the same reasons, companies in the United States are unwilling to try to market already-researched methods, the report said. Needs Go Unmet, Report Says The report asserted that contraceptive methods now available do not match the needs of many people, particularly young women who find the available methods inconvenient. This has led to millions of unwanted pregnancies, unnecessary abortions and avoidable sterilizations, the report said. No fundamentally new contraceptives have been developed in the last three decades ''and the outlook for new contraceptive development is bleak,'' Dr. Luigi Mastroianni, chairman of the committee, said in a statement. The report said that until the 1980's, 17 major companies in the United States were carrying on contraceptive development, but that the number had dropped to one. In strongly worded statements, the committee from the academy's Institute of Medicine and National Research Council recommended new laws to shield companies from lawsuits and asked the Federal Government to establish less stringent rules for the approval of new contraceptives. The report drew immediate fire from anti-abortion groups, while it buoyed the hopes of family planning groups. Both the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health said they would conduct special reviews of the report to see what action might be required. ''While we in the United States make do with the same range of options available 30 years ago,'' said Dr. Mastroianni, director of the division of human reproduction at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia, ''in some European countries people can choose among contraceptive implants, injectable contraceptives, and a variety of pills, IUD's and sterilization techniques not available here.'' ''Moreover,'' | U.S. Is Decades Behind Europe In Contraceptives, Experts Report |
326805_3 | to prescribe the pills to nursing mothers. The new contraceptives offer the possibility of long-term action and far lower, safer doses of hormones than current birth control pills, the report said. Sterilization Is Most Popular About 95 percent of sexually active women of reproductive age, 15 to 44 years old, have used contraceptives, the report said. Sterilization of both men and women is the most popular method in the United States, accounting for about 20 percent of all contraceptive use. Birth control pills taken daily are the next most popular method, followed by condoms and diaphragms. But several methods not approved for use in the United States are available in other countries, including implantable contraceptives, which are placed under the skin and deliver tiny amounts of hormones. The report referred to one implantable contraceptive whose effects last up to seven years, has fewer serious side effects than the pill and is easily reversible during the time it is used. Injectable contraceptives, which last for months, are also widely used in other countries, especially those where medical care is only sporadicially available. Intrauterine devices, or IUD's, have generally been unavailable in this country in recent years as a result of the troubles of the A. H. Robins Company, maker of the defective Dalkon Shield. More than 100,000 women who used the Dalkon Shield filed millions of dollars in damage claims against the company, saying they suffered injuries including infections, infertility and miscarriages. IUD's are used by a substantial percentage of the world's population, including one-third of Chinese women of reproductive age. Several promising methods are being tested but are unlikely to be introduced into the United States even if they prove successful. These include an injectable hormone that may last for a year or two, implants that would be biodegradable and would simply dissolve in the body over the years they are used, contraceptives that can be worn like Band-Aids for two to three days at a time and drugs that interfere with sperm production without affecting male sex urges. The report said 1.2 million to 3 million accidental pregnancies occur in the United States each year as a result of contraceptive failures, including failure of the drug or device and use that is too difficult to maintain. The report said half of all the 1.5 million abortions in the United States result from such failures. In addition, Dr. Mastroianni said, | U.S. Is Decades Behind Europe In Contraceptives, Experts Report |
330332_5 | Mesquita credits with cutting the amount of forest burned by 30 percent, from 50,000 square miles in 1988. ''Last year, for the first time in years, no Amazon airstrip was closed from the smoke of forest fires,'' he said. Mr. Mesquita hopes the World Bank will shortly approve a $150 million three-year loan for environmental projects in Brazil. Philip M. Fearnside, an American forest ecology expert at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon, said Brazilians and foreigners share the blame for the low level of foreign aid for rain forest protection. ''Part of it is hypocrisy,'' he said in a telephone interview from Manaus. ''It is easier for foreigners to talk about how terrible things are in the Amazon than to pay for action.'' But he added that other countries have been more successful than Brazil in taking advantage of aid that is available. ''Costa Rica is one-hundredth the size of the Amazon,'' he said, ''but it has many more rain forest research projects.'' Brazil has a limited number of private groups able to use foreign donations, Mr. Fearnside said. It is reluctant to issue visas to foreign researchers, and it opposes ''debt for nature'' swaps, under which foreign groups agree to retire a portion of a country's foreign debt and the Government injects local currency into environmental projects. Mr. Mesquita predicted that the new Government would approve debt-for-nature swaps. And he pointed out that Brazilians had established a coordinating committee on Amazon research and a National Environmental Fund, which is to channel foreign public and private donations into environmental projects. But he said foreign funds were too often limited to research. Echoing a common suspicion here, he said foreigners planned to profit from research discoveries in the Amazon. ''We need to have the means to control the devastation,'' he said. ''If we don't, in a little while the forest will be destroyed and nothing will be left to research.'' As the sun set, he started gathering papers together, preparing for a flight to Belem, where he would take part in a ceremony welcoming a $1 million British Government grant for research on the biological diversity of a 81,500-acre tract in the eastern Amazon. ''While we have been talking, hundreds of trucks have carried illegal logs, hundreds of lumberjacks have been cutting trees in nature reserves,'' Mr. Mesquita said. ''Our budget is small and our needs are great.'' | As Guard Changes in Brazil, the Rain Forest Loses a Protector |
328199_0 | LEAD: To the Editor: To the Editor: The African contribution to Egyptian and Greek civilization is an idea to be welcomed (''Africa's Claim to Egypt's History Grows More Insistent,'' The Week in Review, Feb. 4). Those of us who have been unwaveringly committed to the vitality of the Greco-Hebraic elements in our civilization have never felt happy with the African-American rejection of that tradition in the name of an isolated African culture. May we now take it that Greek science, philosophy, literature and art are no longer to be sent flying into the limbo of the unusable past? And that African-American studies may now widen their ethnic definitions? What is one to make of scholars discussing a civilization in terms of skin color and the shape of nose and lips? Who today is not terrified by such racist fantasies? Should not everyone disarm such fantasies by commitment to an understanding of what that ancient civilization has bequeathed to us, instead of leading us into the quagmire of racial origins? ''Race'' not so long ago was scientifically and morally unacceptable in thought and action. If African-Americans seek self-esteem and identity through ethnic history, there are surely better ways than racist irrelevancies. Let us search out and define the present needs of individual and ethnic culture, and then study with all the intellectual equipment available what help and inspiration an ancient civilization can give. Thus the noble dead will beget the spiritual grandeur of the living. If the Egyptians and the Greeks drew on African culture, there is all the more reason for making the best use of that cultural and ethnic mixture. R. F. STORCH Lexington, Mass., Feb. 5, 1990 | Black Studies Meets Classics Department |
328335_0 | LEAD: A panel of experts met here today to assess an alarming number of reports that amphibians are rapidly disappearing from many ponds, rivers, mountains and rain forests around the world. A panel of experts met here today to assess an alarming number of reports that amphibians are rapidly disappearing from many ponds, rivers, mountains and rain forests around the world. Many species of frogs, toads and salamanders are ''crashing throughout North, Central and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia,'' said David Wake, a biology professor at the University of California at Berkeley who is the panel's chairman. ''They are disappearing from nature preserves, in the most pristine sites of Costa Rica, Brazil, Yosemite, Sequoia and Isle Royale National Parks. Meadows where frogs were as thick as flies are now silent.'' The scientists emphasize that the evidence is by no means clear-cut. Some species of amphibians seem to be thriving in some parts of the world, said Dr. Harold J. Morowitz, a biology professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. Counting frogs is a tricky business, he said, and reports of their demise could be completely wrong. To sort through the conflicting evidence, the National Research Council's biology board has convened the two-day meeting of 20 experts in amphibian ecology, physiology, tropical biology, population genetics, virology and statistics, held at the Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering in Irvine. Participants plan to issue recommendations tomorrow on what should be done. 'Everybody Has a Theory' Amphibian populations fluctuate wildly, said Dr. Henry Wilbur, a zoologist from Duke University who said he was invited to the meeting to play devil's advocate. But the evidence presented today, he said, ''sure makes it look like something real is going on in some places in the world.'' However, he said, ''I'd be surprised if we come up with a unitary cause for all the problems people are describing.'' ''Everybody has a theory to explain the local declines,'' said Dr. Wake. ''In Texas they say it's cattle egrets. In Connecticut it's the blasted raccoons. In Brazil they say it's the cold winters, and in British Columbia it's that paint plant across the lake.'' But declines could also be caused by global problems like acid rain, pesticides and air pollution, he said. ''If frogs and salamanders are dying off in synchrony, there's a message there for us,'' said Dr. Wake in | Scientists Confront An Alarming Mystery: The Vanishing Frog |
328341_2 | and Rehabilitation maintains what may be the most extensive data base of information describing hardware, software, organizations and publications for disabled people. Every authorized Apple dealer can gain access to it electronically on behalf of customers. Apple also coordinates a nationwide network of neighborhood centers where disabled people and their families can share technical and nontechnical concerns. For more information call (408) 974-7910. Specialnet, a service of G.T.E. Education Services, is the nation's largest telecommunications network devoted specifically to the needs of teachers and administrators in special education and rehabilitation. There is a $200 a year subscription fee plus hourly connection charges that range from $13 an hour during business hours to $4 an hour overnight. Among its many features is Kids Network, which allows special education classrooms across the country to communicate. Call (800) 634-5644 for more information. The I.B.M. Special Needs Exchange, an electronic service for people who need information on how to find and use adaptive or special-purpose peripherals, is carried on the CompuServe information network. For more information call CompuServe at (800) 848-8199. The A.T.& T. National Special Needs Center helps people get information on special telephones, ringers, handsets, signaling devices, TDD machines for the deaf, and other personal computer communications devices. Phone (800) 233-1222. One of the leading centers for the development and evaluation of computers and adaptive devices for the handicapped is the Trace Center at the University of Wisconsin, Waisman Center, 1500 Highland Avenue, , Madison, Wis. 53705, telephone (608) 262-6966. While computers and adaptive devices can remove many of the barriers that disabled people face, perhaps the biggest barrier is money. Feature for feature, computers adapted to serve the handicapped cost more than mainstream computers. Many handicapped people are doubly frustrated because they know the technology to help them exists, but it is just beyond their reach financially. Steven B. Mendelson, an attorney in New York, has written a comprehensive guide, ''Financing Adaptive Technology: a Guide to Sources and Strategies for Blind and Visually Impaired Users.'' The $23 guide is published by Smiling Interface, Post Office Box 2792, Church Street Station, New York, N.Y. 10008-2792, telephone (212) 222-0312. It is available in large print or Braille, on audio cassettes, or on Apple II and I.B.M. diskettes. Although the guide focuses on the services available for visually disabled people, most of the contents are applicable to other disability groups as well. PERSONAL COMPUTERS | Putting Disabled In Touch |
328352_0 | LEAD: New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission is scheduled to vote today on a proposed 12-story office building in the South Street Seaport Historic District in lower Manhattan. The vote raises a large issue: whether the Landmarks Commission and the city will embrace a balanced approach to development in historic districts. New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission is scheduled to vote today on a proposed 12-story office building in the South Street Seaport Historic District in lower Manhattan. The vote raises a large issue: whether the Landmarks Commission and the city will embrace a balanced approach to development in historic districts. Such an approach could actually encourage the preservation of older buildings by permitting construction of compatible new buildings. The owners of the site at 50 Water Street, Paul and Seymour Milstein, have been trying to build there for seven years. The current design, a brick and granite base with stepped-back upper stories in stone and glass, is undeniably sensitive to the architectural spirit of the maritime district. Some fear that the 148-foot structure would overpower the existing buildings, mostly four and five stories. But that ignores reality. Some of the smaller buildings are crumbling for want of investors. Unless efforts are made to increase the seaport's overall economic vitality, restoration will languish. By any reasonable measure, the proposal now before the Landmarks Commission strikes a laudable compromise between the district's historic scale and the need for modern development. TOPICS OF THE TIMES | Making the New Serve the Old |
328336_0 | LEAD: PRELIMINARY results of an international study show that coronary bypass surgery produces subtle, long-lasting impairment of mental performance in nearly one in five people who undergo the operation, researchers say. PRELIMINARY results of an international study show that coronary bypass surgery produces subtle, long-lasting impairment of mental performance in nearly one in five people who undergo the operation, researchers say. While the scientists say the problem is not seriously debilitating, patients often report trouble concentrating, remembering new information and performing mental tasks as quickly as they could before their operations. The study found that the trouble persisted in 17 percent of the patients a year after surgery. The study is also finding that up to 20 percent of bypass patients are depressed one year after their operations and that their mood change stemmed from damage sustained in surgery. Some patients suffer both depression and mental difficulties. Yet others become depressed for purely psychological reasons, which are not directly associated with the surgery. The preliminary findings are far from definitive and their significance is not yet certain. The study has thus far enrolled about 600 patients but has followed only about 150 of them, all in Europe, for a year after their surgery. They are a small portion of the 1,000 bypass patients who are ultimately to be evaluated for long-term mental impairment by the time the study ends in 1992. The initial results, which have been described at medical meetings in the last few months, have not yet been published in scientific journals or endorsed by scientific peers. The design of the study has been questioned by some experts. And the results seem to contradict dozens of other studies that have looked for subtle brain damage without finding any long-lasting effects. But the researchers conducting the study say that it identifies a problem that escaped the methods used in earlier studies. Some American heart surgeons have expressed skepticism that the findings will hold up, and many say that physicians and patients should not be unduly alarmed by the findings because the effects on mental performance, if real, are minor. But the new study has been praised by some European specialists who believe that bypass operations may indeed be causing subtle brain damage that was not previously recognized. Experts believe that surgeons should be made aware of the risk so safer procedures can be devised, and that patients should be | Study Hints Of Harm In Heart Operations |
325771_0 | LEAD: IN the last year, the newspaper industry has shifted from having a relatively mild interest in using recycled newsprint to a near obsession with increasing the recycled material in the paper they use. IN the last year, the newspaper industry has shifted from having a relatively mild interest in using recycled newsprint to a near obsession with increasing the recycled material in the paper they use. Such uncharacteristically speedy change was mainly prompted by publishers' alarm at a flurry of efforts to pass environmentally inspired laws that would mandate and regulate the use of recycled newsprint. With landfills near capacity, old newspapers represent an expensive waste-disposal problem. The theory is that by requiring newspapers to use recycled newsprint, the old papers will be worth collecting as raw material by waste-paper dealers, who will haul away tons of them. Newspaper publishers, who have a longstanding aversion to any governmental regulation, hope to amend or head off such legislation by volunteering to do what national, state and local governments are otherwise likely to demand. ''They don't want to have legislation telling them how to handle the situation,'' said Lisa Donneson, a newspaper analyst at County NatWest Securities Inc., who has done a study of newsprint recycling. Florida, California and Connecticut have recently passed laws requiring the use of recycled newsprint, and similar legislation has been proposed in at least 15 other states, according to the American Newspaper Publishers Association. Many others are considering similar laws. Bills on newsprint recycling have also been introduced in Congress. But there are signs that the newspaper industry's quick response is having some effect, though no clear standard has yet emerged. About 10 days ago, the Connecticut Newsprint Recycling Task Force, which was created by the State Legislature, unanimously recommended that the Connecticut newsprint recycling law be replaced with a new, voluntary commitment on the part of newspapers. The Connecticut Daily Newspaper Association has pledged that 50 percent of the paper that runs through newspaper presses by 1999 will be constituted of recycled fiber. The task force proposed that if newspapers failed to reach their goal in a year when recycled newsprint was available at a price and quality comparable to that of ''virgin'' newsprint, which is made entirely from fresh wood pulp, the state would revert to mandatory controls and fines. Shortly before Christmas, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo of New York announced a similar voluntary | THE MEDIA BUSINESS: Press; Recycled Paper Gains Favor In Move to Avert New Laws |
325851_0 | LEAD: Facing foreign criticism of Brazil's treatment of the Amazon region and the Indians living in its rain forest, Brazil's President-elect has been surprisingly conciliatory. Facing foreign criticism of Brazil's treatment of the Amazon region and the Indians living in its rain forest, Brazil's President-elect has been surprisingly conciliatory. In Britain, Italy and West Germany, Fernando Collor de Mello encountered small demonstrations last week protesting Brazil's environmental policies. In each country, the President-elect made room in his schedule to meet with environmentalists. ''He assured me that he is very concerned with the question and that he is open to new ideas,'' Mario Signorino, president of the Friends of the Earth organization in Italy, told reporters after a hastily scheduled meeting with the Brazilian leader in Rome. Mr. Collor is to be inaugurated March 15 for a five-year term as president of Brazil, which encompasses about two-thirds of the Amazon region. Criticism From Prince Charles The most startling criticism of Brazil came from Prince Charles last Tuesday, two days before Mr. Collor was to arrive in London. ''We are literally the last generation which can save the rain forest from total destruction,'' the Prince warned in a lecture at the Royal Botanic Gardens. He said the Yanomami Indians of Brazil ''are driven into extinction by measles, venereal disease or mercury poisoning following the illegal invasion of their lands by gold prospectors.'' The next day, Mr. Collor scheduled an appointment with the Prince and assured a Brazilian reporter the conflict in the northeast Amazon should be settled ''within the recognition of the right that the Yanomami Indians have to their lands.'' Recognizing the power of environmental lobbies, Mr. Collor met with cabinet-level officials in Britain, France and West Germany and repeatedly broached environmental issues with the nine heads of state he met on his world tour. ''This is a head of state who is solidly committed to giving environmental protection its due importance,'' Jurgen Warnke, West Germany's Minister of Economic Cooperation, said after meeting the Brazilian. In the election campaign last year, Mr. Collor largely rejected foreign criticism as interference. Steps to Allay Fears On the tour, Mr. Collor took a series of steps to allay fears. He announced his Government would introduce environmental protection into the curriculum of Brazil's public school system. Saying ''we have nothing to hide,'' the Brazilian invited experts and officials to attend the United Nations Conference on | Collor Receptive to Criticism Of Brazil's Policy in Amazon |
327984_5 | personal friendship with President Bush, with whom he served for four years on the Ways and Means Committee. Mr. Conable is also close to Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d, who as Treasury Secretary in the Reagan Administration, picked Mr. Conable for the job. The current harmony between the Bush Administration and the bank is in sharp contrast to the cold war that existed under Mr. Conable's predecessor, A. W. Clausen, the former head of the Bank of America. The Reagan Administration's first Treasury Secretary, Donald T. Regan, and his Under Secretary for Monetary Affairs, Beryl W. Sprinkel, had little sympathy either for Mr. Clausen or the World Bank and at one time even considered pulling the United States out of the organization. The Clausen period resulted in relatively little growth for the bank, a situation that Mr. Conable has sought to rectify. While acknowledging - and saying he refuses to apologize for - the ''constructive'' influence of Washington on that growth, Mr. Conable insisted that the bank is a collegial institution not dominated by any one country. On cutting off loans to Nicaragua, for example, he stressed that this was a decision forced by bank rules, not American policy mandates. The Sandinista Government defaulted on its debts to the bank, he said. Six other countries are in the same category. But even if there had been an American agenda at the bank, Mr. Conable insisted that it has become the ''global agenda.'' ''If I were to characterize the past decade,'' he observed, ''the most remarkable thing was the generation of a global consensus that market forces and economic efficiency were the best way to achieve the kind of growth which is the best antidote to poverty. We now have Eastern Europe participating in this agenda.'' Given all the tumultuous changes of the past year in Europe, he said, the bank is ''a paradigm for the post-cold war world.'' ''People are sold on what they are doing here,'' Mr. Conable added. ''They're quite cheerful about continuing to do what they do well and be responsive to their perception of need. Somebody has to look at the world and ask are we meeting that need. We are meeting that need.'' TWO ROADS TOWARD CHANGE Besides nearly doubling the World Bank's lending resources, Barber Conable has pressed new initiatives involving women and the environment. The new women in development division, which | Conable's World Bank: Finding Fault (and Praise) |
327930_3 | York at Stony Brook, and Polytechnic University, both in Brooklyn and in Farmingdale. We asked faculty members we knew to recommend their best students. We built a team consisting of the best students, a highly motivated, dedicated group. We also taught as adjunct faculty at all the schools named above and once again made offers to the best students we saw. Even as we grew and needed far more employees, the technique was still effective. With creativity we can attract and keep our graduates on Long Island. The university is also critical in attracting the less affluent and enabling them to join the community. It may appear that the high technology industries exclude these very people. The only real entry barrier is the willingness to exercise one's intellect. For example, Polytechnic University draws almost all its students from the New York area, with many students being the first generation in their families to attend college. About 71 percent remain in the metropolitan area after graduation and if more jobs were available even more of them would stay. Among those who work in industry as co-op students while undergraduates, 83 percent are placed locally. Of course, the university's impact does not stop with undergraduate education. In any technologically centered company, and particularly in information systems, professionals must be prepared to learn. However, many people must change their technical fields several times in a career. For lasting and deep knowledge, fundamentals must be presented in a coherent graduate program. Our company was acquired in 1980, and I have now returned to teaching at Polytechnic University, where I continue to implement the tenets I preach. One program we offer is in telecommunications management and the other in information systems engineering. Some of the people who enroll in these programs are working on information systems but never were formally educated in either computers or in communications or both. The people who have graduated from the program compete and excel in two of the areas critical to the welfare of Long Island. I do not minimize the magnitude of our problems. One does not overcome problems of tax burdens, job displacement, aging industries and international competition by penning a few words. But one can set objectives. Our future lies in our ability to capitalize our college-educated work force to stay at the forefront of information technology and attract business to Long Island. LONG ISLAND OPINION | Our Greatest Asset: Educated Workers |
327866_1 | geopolitical vision. The reviewer chides us for calling the Sarney regime, now ended, a nominal democracy. For the inhabitants of the Amazon it has most certainly been such. The regional plans for the Amazon during the presidency of Jose Sarney were developed in secret. Other projects - dams, roads, vast industrial projects - have been pushed through immune to even minimal democratic formalities. The rights of indigenous peoples have routinely been trampled, as in the current situation on Yanomami lands, where 75 percent of the territory was reclassified as national forest in order to permit mining. This blatant breach of the new Constitution bears the imprimatur of a Government whose modus operandi was honed through years of authoritarianism. Under the rubric of ''national security'' the military enjoys jurisdiction over about 30 percent of the Amazon territory. The freedoms to organize and to speak freely are often abrogated. Labor leaders, clergy and legal reformers are harassed and assassinated. Your reviewer may not like our analysis and may wish to purify the memory of his friend General Golbery, but as part of this defense he should not invent a benignly democratic Amazon that has never existed. Nor should he suggest that the freedoms of the last three years exceed those of any other time in Brazilian history. The period from 1945 to 1964 was marked by civil liberties comparable to the current opening of Brazilian society. Nor should he caricature our scholarship by arguing that we exaggerate the number of Indians in the Amazon basin when Europeans arrived there in 1500. How could we suggest a figure between 6 million and 12 million, he asks, ''when a book cited in the bibliography refers to only five million Indians''? In a bibliography of several hundred titles, there are some 30 citations on this particular topic. It seems an odd tactic to try and dismiss a long discussion that carefully reviews demographic, archeological and agronomic data by invoking one, unnamed volume. SUSANNA B. HECHT AlEXANDER COCKBURN Los Angeles Elio Gaspari replies: My friendship with General Golbery - a friendship of more than 15 years - has not prevented me from denouncing in print his most (in)famous creation: the ill-fated and gangrenous Servico Nacional de Informacoes, the agency for political spying founded by him in 1964. Also, it has not prevented me from considering his book ''Geopolitica do Brasil'' overrated, banal and boring. And it | 'The Fate of the Forest' |
327981_1 | one true substitute has yet won Federal approval, and many once-plausible candidates have been discarded. Nevertheless, commercial research is now running at an all-time high, with at least a dozen firms working on products they say have commercial possibilities. Last December, for example, the Food and Drug Administration approved the specialized use of an oxygen-carrying chemical made by Alpha Therapeutic, a subsidiary of Japan's Green Cross Corporation, for use during balloon angioplasty procedures. The race for substitutes comes down to three different technologies. ''White bloods'' are based on human-made chemicals called perfluorocarbons, or PFC's. These clear, inert liquids bear no resemblance to natural blood and are chemically similar to synthetic oils. But they soak up and dissolve up to 50 percent of their volume in oxygen, which can then be delivered to different parts of the body by the circulatory system. ''Red bloods'' are based on repackaging of old hemoglobin, the complex oxygen-carrying protein found in red blood cells. The idea is to remove ''naked'' hemoglobin molecules from dead blood cells (from humans and possibly from other mammals) and modify the molecules so they can carry oxygen without protection of the red blood cells. The most ambitious approach, and by far the most elegant if it can be perfected, is to isolate and modify the human gene that produces hemoglobin and reproduce hemoglobin in limitless quantities through genetically altered bacteria. What makes the search for blood substitutes so compelling is the fear of contagion. About 5 percent of all blood given in transfusions contains hepatitis, a liver disease that comes in too many variations to be detected consistently by current screening techniques. And, although screening of the nation's blood supply for AIDS has been largely successful, fear of contracting the immune disorder from transfusions remains high. In addition, natural blood has always presented practical problems in transfusions: it requires a donor-recipient blood-type match, is delicate and has a short shelf-life. The oxygen-carrying potential of perfluorocarbons was first demonstrated during the 1960's. In a famous experiment, Dr. Leland C. Clark of the University of Cincinnati dropped a live rat into a beaker of liquid PFC. Instead of dying, the rat survived for hours, literally by breathing the liquid. Ironically, the chief advantage of synthetic PFC's over the seemingly more natural hemoglobin is safety. PFC's do not interact with any chemicals in the body and can be manufactured in near-perfect sterility. Naked | The Quest for Synthetic Blood |
327800_0 | LEAD: Researchers have found a higher risk of leukemia in the offspring of men who worked at a nuclear plant on the northwest coast of England than among the children of men who worked at other jobs in the area. Researchers have found a higher risk of leukemia in the offspring of men who worked at a nuclear plant on the northwest coast of England than among the children of men who worked at other jobs in the area. The Government, which ordered the study, said it was concerned and would refer the findings, published in the current issue of The British Medical Journal, to its committee of experts on radiation for urgent consideration. An editorial in the journal called the findings the first of their kind and cautioned that it would be premature to recommend formal changes based only on the study. But the editorial said that workers need to be advised and that those who have not completed their families should be told to avoid high exposure. Previous Government studies have found a tenfold increase in childhood leukemia within a mile of the plant, the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant, which has been troubled by radioactive leaks. The study, headed by Martin J. Gardner, professor of medical studies at the University of Southampton, examined 52 victims of leukemia and lymphoma under 25 years old who were born in the West Cumbria health district and whose ailments were diagnosed from 1950 to 1985. They were compared with 1,001 control children. The statistical study was designed to determine risks factors for the leukemia cases but not their cause. ''The main finding was of a raised risk for those children whose fathers worked at Sellafield, in particular fathers with the highest recorded exposures to external ionizing radiation before their child's conception,'' Dr. Gardner said at a a news conference. ''The risk was raised by sixfold to eightfold for fathers who had received total doses of over 100 millisieverts.'' One millisievert equals half an individual's annual dose from natural radiation, or 50 times the dose received during a single chest X-ray. When researchers focused on the village of Seascale near Sellafield, they found that the fathers of four of the five victims of leukemia and one lymphoma sufferer were employed at the plant and had higher radiation doses before their child's conception than all their matched controls. Dr. Gardner said other theories about | Children's Cancer Tied to British A-Plant Workers |
322502_0 | LEAD: ''THE past year has been a boon for diaper services,'' said John A. Shiffert, the executive director of the National Association of Diaper Services, a trade group based in Philadelphia. Why? ''Because disposable diapers are a symbol of the solid-waste crisis,'' Mr. Shiffert said. ''Cotton diapers are the original curbside recyclables. ''THE past year has been a boon for diaper services,'' said John A. Shiffert, the executive director of the National Association of Diaper Services, a trade group based in Philadelphia. Why? ''Because disposable diapers are a symbol of the solid-waste crisis,'' Mr. Shiffert said. ''Cotton diapers are the original curbside recyclables.'' Each baby uses about 10,000 diapers, and a disposable one can take 500 years to decompose, the association reports. Eighteen billion disposable diapers are dumped in landfills each year, accounting for up to 4.5 percent of all household solid waste. Cotton diapers, on the other hand, can be reused 50 to 100 times and are then recycled as rags. Cotton disintegrates in one to six months. Andrea Lee of Manhattan has been using cotton diapers largely for environmental reasons since her 20-month-old son was born. But like many modern mothers, she was initially concerned that cloth diapers might be difficult to use. ''It has been really easy,'' Mrs. Lee said, ''and I don't have to carry those big bags of diapers home every week.'' Mrs. Lee added that her son has never had a diaper rash. Proponents of cotton diapers say children who wear disposable diapers develop diaper rash five times as often as those who wear cloth ones. She believes using a diaper service has saved her money as well. ''I always try to convince people to go ahead and do it,'' said Mrs. Lee, who uses the Riteway Diaper Service in Brooklyn. In the past six months, business at Riteway has increased 250 percent. ''There has been an explosion,'' said Robert Mazlish, the president. His company supplies 40,000 diapers a week on Long Island and in all boroughs but the Bronx. The diapers are 100 percent cotton and come in two sizes, infant and large. Riteway also provides plastic diaper covers, which have Velcro fasteners and make it unnecessary to use old-style pins in the diapers. The covers come in four sizes: newborn, small, medium and large. The company makes weekly stops to pick up used diapers and deliver new ones. A plastic hamper is | Cloth Diapers, Brought to Your Door |
322418_1 | former director of the F.D.A.'s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, termed the Heartguide program ''a reflection of the anarchy that exists in food labeling and health claims.'' The program is the latest in a series of health claims that food producers have made since 1985, when the F.D.A. dropped its opposition to the use of such claims on food labels. Before that, any food label making health claims was treated as a drug by the Government, setting off rigorous testing for safety and efficacy. The Heartguide program identifies products that meet criteria for total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium, but the heart association has not disclosed its criteria. At first the association is limiting its program to three categories of foods: shortenings and oils, canned and frozen vegetables and crackers. Only those companies that pay a fee, $15,000 to $640,000, depending on a product's sales, are eligible for the seal. The association says the money will be spent for testing products and financing nutrition education programs. Further Information Available The first foods - less than 100 - to carry the seal, a red heart with a checkmark, include C&W frozen vegetables, Promise margarine products and Colavita olive oil. All approved products will also include in fine print a toll-free number for further information and a comparison of the fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium in a serving with the recommended maximum daily adult intake. The products should start to appear in stores by the middle of the month, and the stores will also be given nutrition education literature to display. But the F.D.A. says it will examine the products for mislabeling, particularly fats and oil. Last year the Agriculture Department, which regulates meat and poultry products, told the heart association it would not approve the use of the Heartguide seal. The F.D.A., unlike the Agriculture Department, can take action against a food company for labeling violations only after the products appear. In a letter to the association, James S. Benson, the Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs, said the agency was concerned that ''your proposed program could very easily result in the endorsement of products - such as some varieties of margarine, spreads and salad dressings - that quite simply do not represent the kinds of foods that ought to be promoted to achieve healthy hearts.'' Food Company Reconsiders At least one company, Best Foods, which makes | Heart Group Begins Food Labeling Amid Outcry |
322312_0 | LEAD: To the Editor: To the Editor: Though the news media did a commendable job in publicizing a proposed 25-cent fare increase on New York City subways and buses, and perhaps played a minor role in keeping the fare increase to an outrageous 15 percent, the news media failed to mention the changes regarding children riding mass transit. As the mother of a just-turned-4-year-old, I was outraged to learn (by reading the tiny print on a bus farebox), that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has devised a new means to soak pennies out of the pockets of the poor and middle class. Any child taller than 44 inches, regardless of age, must now pay full fare. In other words, my preschooler who, at 43 inches, is off the percentile charts in height, will soon have to pay $1.15, while a short 8-year-old gets to ride free. Why not charge overweight people who occupy more than one seat double fare? Why not make people who drag 15 shopping bags onto a bus and take up an extra seat with it pay an extra $1.15? Overweight people can lose weight; shoppers with bundles can learn to travel lighter. But kids with extra inches can't do a thing about it. Shame on the M.T.A. for covertly implementing this with no regard for public opinion. MOLLIE FERMAGLICH New York, Jan. 9, 1990 | Now New York Mass Transit Practices Height Discrimination |
322385_2 | board and the request is granted without incident. The use of force is rare. The last time a Coast Guard crew fired on a vessel was in December 1988. Gene Maestras, a Coast Guard spokesman, said the Coast Guard had every reason to believe that the freighter was Panamanian. The ship's master told a Coast Guard captain by radio that ''he was from Panama, the crew was from Panama and the vessel was from Panama,'' he said. Owned by Cubans After getting permission from Panama, the Coast guard ordered the Hermann to heave to and prepare to be boarded, but the Hermann's master refused permission. Though the freighter was registered in Panama and flying a Panamanian flag, it was actually owned by a Cuban shipping company and had a Cuban crew. Minutes later the American interest section in the Swiss Embassy in Havana received a call from the Cuban Foreign Ministry stating that they were ordering their vessel not to allow itself to be boarded. Subsequently the Coast Guard used water hoses and warning shots. Mr. Maestras said the direct fire -300 rounds with an M60 machine gun and 130 rounds from a 20-millimeter gun, the size of a small cannon - was meant to disable the ship, not sink it. But a report by La Prensa, the official Cuban news agency, said the shots were fired ''with the clear intention of sinking'' the Hermann. Although hit at least twice, in the engine compartment and rudder, the Hermann was still able to flee. At 7:43 A.M. it entered Mexican territorial waters 12 miles off the Mexican coast. The Chincoteague halted about 15 miles off Tampico and eventually lost sight of the Hermann. A Cargo of Chrome The Associated Press quoted state-run Cuban television as saying that the Hermann was chartered by the Cuban shipping company Caribe and was carrying a load of chrome from Cuba to Tampico. The ship's 11-member Cuban crew stood ready with knives, machetes, and axes during the incident to repel an American boarding party, the television said. No casualties were reported from the shooting. The State Department immediately contacted the Mexican Government and asked that the ship be boarded and inspected, but have not received word back yet about whether this request was honored, officials said. There were no Mexican ships in the area at the time, State Department officials said. Jose Jorna, the press attache | Cuba Accuses U.S. of Firing on Freighter |
322911_2 | abortion laws. In contrast to that decision, which largely removed abortion from the reach of Congress or state legislatures, European courts, whether by choice or from constitutional tradition, left the abortion question in the lawmakers' hands. In any case, Ms. Glendon says, the result was not the chaos feared in the United States but the articulation of a considerable consensus. Interest in her analysis, which was published two years ago in ''Abortion and Divorce in Western Law'' (Harvard University Press), has grown since last summer when the Supreme Court, ruling in a challenge to a Missouri abortion law, at least partially returned legal authority over abortion to state legislatures. Last July, for example, The Christian Century, a liberal weekly, published an editorial calling attention to her ''mind-clearing book.'' More recently she summarized her ideas in the Roman Catholic quarterly Church. Her first finding comes as a surprise to many Americans. ''No country in Western Europe has gone so far as our Supreme Court in permitting abortion on demand,'' she said, or in reducing the legal status of the fetus. Of course, there is a spectrum among the 19 nations she studied. But abortion laws in most of the countries have two things in common, Ms. Glendon says. First, in all but five countries, ''abortion is clearly stamped as a criminal offense, even in the first trimester, but exempt from punishment under certain conditions.'' Second, ''after the early weeks of pregnancy these exemptions are very strictly limited.'' Grounds for early exemptions also vary, from serious health risks, rape or incest in Spain and Portugal to vaguer notions of hardship in Britain, France or West Germany. In practice, Ms. Glendon writes, first trimester abortions, which in Europe as in the United States constitute more than 90 percent of all abortions, are freely available everywhere except Ireland and some localities where doctors refuse to perform them. In practice, she also found, lower abortion rates do not correlate with stricter abortion laws but with other social conditions, such as generous public support for pregnant women and single mothers. What lessons does Ms. Glendon draw for the United States? First, she favors the legal condemnation of abortion ''to let people know we take human life very seriously and that we will think long and hard before beginning to decide who is or is not a member of the human community.'' But she also believes that | Beliefs |
322938_5 | by selling minority stakes to larger companies or arranging joint ventures with them. Genentech was founded in 1976 by Mr. Swanson, a venture capitalist who has headed the company since its inception, and Herbert Boyer, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco and a developer of the gene-splicing technique used by Genentech and dozens of other biotechnology companies. With gene-splicing, more formally known as recombinant DNA technology, genes that govern the production of particular proteins can be implanted into bacteria or animal cells. Those bacteria or cells then become miniature factories, churning out large volumes of the proteins for use as drugs. Genentech was the first biotechnology company to bring products to market and had revenues of $400 million in 1989. It now sells two products, tissue plasminogen activator, or TPA, which dissolves blood clots and can save the lives of heart attack victims, and human growth hormone, which is used to treat children who are abnormally short because their bodies do not make enough of the hormone. Products Ready for Testing The company has several products in or about to enter clinical trials, including a potential treatment for AIDS and a hormone that relaxes the birth canal and might allow women to avoid Caesarean births. Roche, with headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, had revenues of $6.5 billion in 1989. Its main American operation, Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., is based in Nutley, N.J., and sells pharmaceuticals, provides clinical health-care services and sells diagnostic products, vitamins, flavors and fragrances. The two companies said they would continue with their relationships with other companies in the industry. Roche, for instance, owns a stake in Cetus, another biotechnology company, and Genentech has marketing agreements with Boehringer Ingelheim, a German drug company. Genentech shareholders will be asked to approve the merger at a meeting planned for April. Under the terms of the agreement, the 40 percent of Genentech's shares that will not be owned by Roche will be converted to special redeemable shares. Roche will have the option of buying all those shares at once over the next five years at increasing prices that start at $38 a share this year and rise to $60 a share in 1995. If Roche does not choose to buy all the shares, it can buy another 15 percent of the company, but no more, on the open market, raising its stake to a maximum of 75 percent. | Company News; U.S. Biotechnology Leader to Sell Swiss 60% Stake |
328774_2 | arrested, and lives and jobs were disrupted by the subsequent wave of political indoctrination as well as by the presence of martial-law troops. Despite the Government's public-relations efforts, such as the ''love the people month'' proclaimed by the police, the hostility to the leadership in Beijing seems as great as ever. In Beijing, some residents say the situation is now less tense than before, and they point to the lifting of martial law and the release of students and workers who had been detained. The authorities have even advised university officials to prepare for the release soon of Guo Haifeng, the secretary general of the United Association of Beijing Universities, a Beijing university administrator said. But others note that troops remain in the capital, and that those freed from jail have mostly been fired from their jobs and denied new work, and they say little if anything has changed. Discontent in the Provinces Outside Beijing, the atmosphere was never so tense, and almost everybody interviewed says tensions are declining. Partly, that may be because in the provinces, neither the democracy movement nor the repression went as far as in Beijing. Here in Hunan Province, for example, with a population of 60 million, a provincial spokesman said that about 400 people, none of them students, had been arrested in connection with the democracy movement and with a looting rampage that coincided with a demonstration in April. Most have been released, and fewer than 100 who committed specific acts of violence remain in prison, while nobody has been sentenced to death, the spokesman, You Bizhu, said. It is impossible to confirm his figures. There is widespread discontent in the provinces, as well as in the cities. But except among intellectuals, it often has less to do with political repression than with corruption among officials, delayed payment by the Government for crops, family planning policies and the economic slowdown. For someone familiar with the horror expressed in Beijing and in many foreign countries at the killings in June, it is striking that Chinese outside the capital often do not sound particularly outraged. While many people have heard that there is more to the story than the Government lets on, they did not see the army assault on television or read about it in any detail - it is more distant to them emotionally than it was to many in the West. Result of | Outside China's Cities, the Crackdown and the Outrage Are Watered Down |
328819_0 | LEAD: France ended a 14-year ban on sales of nuclear energy to Pakistan today, announcing a commercial venture that would set up a nuclear power plant in the country. France ended a 14-year ban on sales of nuclear energy to Pakistan today, announcing a commercial venture that would set up a nuclear power plant in the country. The announcement by President Francois Mitterrand during a visit here follows a 14-year dispute between Pakistan and France over a promised sale of a nuclear reprocessing plant. France had reneged on the deal because of United States pressure. Pakistan is not a signatory to the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty and refuses to sign it unless India does. Reiterating that Pakistan does not want to produce nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said today that a French-supplied plant would be ''open to all international safeguards and monitoring teams.'' | France Selling Nuclear Plant To Pakistan After Long Ban |
328728_1 | Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Etruscan and Near Eastern cultures. 'He Did It Without Fanfare' ''As a collector he was an inspiration to the antiquities field, in the sense that he quietly and devotedly promoted the appreciation of ancient art through sage collecting and through the generosity he manifested to several collections throughout the country,'' said Maxwell L. Anderson, the director of the Emory University Museum of Art and Archeology in Atlanta. ''And he did it without fanfare or desire for recognition.'' Mr. Schimmel's gift of 25 limestone relief blocks from the Amarna period in ancient Egypt are in a specially designed gallery in the Metropolitan's Egyptian department. He was a trustee of the museum for many years, serving on the board's acquisition committee until he resigned last year. Always modest about his collecting, Mr. Schimmel once told an interviewer that he had unwittingly acquired fakes several times. He was dashed, he said, when a museum curator told him that one of his first purchases, a glass inlay work he thought was a masterpiece, was a forgery. In 1964, he returned two bronze objects to the Greek Government because they turned out to have been stolen from a small museum in Sparta. ''Show me the collector who doesn't get taken,'' he said. An Interest in History Mr. Schimmel was born in Berlin in 1904 and came to the United States in 1938, where he prospered as a manufacturer of engraving machinery. As a young man he collected contemporary prints, but an interest in history stirred his feeling for ancient art, he said. He began to acquire objects in 1949, soon developing a feel for what was genuine. ''Ancient craftsmen made all objects for use,'' he said. ''When I pick up a vase in which the handles are too close to the body to properly accommodate my hands, I know something is wrong.'' In a collecting field made difficult by export sanctions of countries seeking to preserve their ancient patrimonies, Mr. Schimmel persevered. ''Collectors are born, not made, possessed of an enthusiasm that borders on madness,'' he said. ''But you also have to have luck. The fun of this field is that you pursue an object for quite some time before you're able to get it.'' In 1960, Mr. Schimmel established the Schimmel Foundation, which has supported libraries and such projects as self-help programs and student charities throughout the United States. In 1981, | Norbert Schimmel, Collector, Dies; Specialist in Antiquities Was 85 |
330469_0 | LEAD: The ravages inflicted by time, nature and man on some of the world's most treasured monuments and works of art have received belated and somewhat panicky attention in recent years. If you've wondered what is going on behind the scaffoldings and tarpulins that keep tourists from seeing what they came to see, tune into ''The Future of the Past. The ravages inflicted by time, nature and man on some of the world's most treasured monuments and works of art have received belated and somewhat panicky attention in recent years. If you've wondered what is going on behind the scaffoldings and tarpulins that keep tourists from seeing what they came to see, tune into ''The Future of the Past.'' This surprisingly upbeat episode of ''The Infinite Voyage,'' at 8 P.M. on Channels 13 and 49, tells of the efforts to save such prized expressions of Western civilization as the Parthenon, the stained-glass windows of Cologne Cathedral, the frescoes of Florence and New York's own Statue of Liberty. The hour begins in Florence, whose famed frescoes have not recovered from the floods of 1966 and 1983. With the help of modern chemistry, however, the contamination has been halted and the colors are being restored. In Cologne's Gothic cathedral, the windows that managed to survive the Allied bombings in 1944 have come under more insidious attack by air pollution. Now, the deterioration is contained by protective coatings of a specially created lacquer. The hour is filled with information about the nature and quality of the materials at risk and about the new materials and techniques being used to preserve them. As the title suggests, present-day technology is coming to the aid of the past for the sake of the future. American viewers are likely to find particular interest in the formidable job of restoring the Statue of Liberty, which was discovered to be in a state of advanced decay as 1986, its centennial year, arrived. Now stainless steel bars are replacing the corroded iron bars that made up the lady's skeleton. The promise is that the operation will give her another thousand years of life. The program jumps back and forth between Europe and the United States. Titanium, a non-corroding space-age metal used in jet engines, is being substituted for the rusted iron bars used in a previous reconstruction of the Parthenon. In California, engineers have devised ingenious custom-designed mounts for the | Review/Television; Halting Time's Ravages So Art May Endure |
330542_0 | LEAD: A group of Roman Catholics from Chicago is seeking 100,000 signatures on an appeal for major changes in the Catholic Church. They would include the ordination of women and married people to the priesthood, widespread consultation with believers in developing church teaching about sexuality and the participation of priests and lay people in the selection of bishops. A group of Roman Catholics from Chicago is seeking 100,000 signatures on an appeal for major changes in the Catholic Church. They would include the ordination of women and married people to the priesthood, widespread consultation with believers in developing church teaching about sexuality and the participation of priests and lay people in the selection of bishops. More than 4,500 Catholics have signed the group's ''call for reform,'' which has been circulating for several months and is published as an advertisement in The New York Times today on page B4 and B5. The signers include a number of prominent theologians, one ber of prominent theologians, one bishop and many priests, sisters and lay people active in parishes and local agencies. Dan Daley, director of Call to Action, the Chicago-based sponsoring group, said that without changes in the church's internal structure, the credibility of the church's teaching on broader questions of justice and peace would be undermined. Greater Participation Urged The theme of greater participation by Catholics at all levels of church activity runs throughout the appeal, which includes demands for financial accountability, guarantees of academic freedom in Catholic universities and consultation with parishioners when parishes or schools are closed. The text of the advertisement asserts that Catholics may be deprived of the sacraments unless the decline in the number of priests in the United States is reversed with the opening of the priesthood to women and married people. It also complains of papal selection of bishops ''without input from local churches'' and the silencing of theologians. A spokesman for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops reacted to the advertisement in a conciliatory way. ''Some of these opinions we would identify with strongly, others we would have some difficulty with,'' said the Rev. Kenneth J. Doyle, the bishops' director for media relations. Statement Is Assailed Helen Hull Hitchcock, director of Women for Faith and Family, said it was ''deplorable'' that a ''divisive'' statement had been released on Ash Wednesday, a solemn Christian holy day. She said the appeal contained ''nothing new'' but was | Catholic Group Urges Sweeping Change in Church |
330615_3 | Mr. Pierre-Jerome said. He also uses phyllo to make purses filled with snails and cups to hold fennel-flavored ratatouille. Alfred Portale, the chef at the Gotham Bar and Grill in New York, also finds it more successful than puff pastry for en croute dishes. ''It is thinner and has a more delicate crust,'' he said. Five years ago Barry Wine put apple crumple made with phyllo on the menu at the Quilted Giraffe in Manhattan, and it has been a specialty of the house ever since. Christopher Idone's chocolate-caramel crack, served at 1022, his new restaurant in Manhattan, is also made with phyllo. While the dish has met with universal acclaim, the name has not. ''I'm not going to change the name,'' Mr. Idone said, ''because it cracks when you put it in your mouth.'' Ms. DeMayo's creation, baklava of banana, does not have an image problem, but phyllo is its only connection with the overly sweet baklava. The thought process that produced this splendid-looking and irresistible dessert - one evening our table ordered a second one after we had taken turns devouring the first - began with Ms. DeMayo's love of bananas and sour cream, what she calls ''a natural combination in some circles.'' She wanted to do a layered dessert with prunes and Armagnac but decided there were too many prune and Armagnac dishes in the city already. ''I wanted something really comforting and there is something very comforting about mushy bananas and crunchy phyllo,'' she said. Instead of making a traditional pastry cream she made one with sour cream. But the dish continues to evolve and now the pastry cream has become whipped cream and sour cream. Ms. DeMayo's phyllo is a bit different from most: in addition to brushing the leaves with butter, she sprinkles them with sugar. The result is a caramelization that makes the phyllo taste and crackle like praline. To make it at home it is not necessary to decorate it as elaborately as Ms. DeMayo does. The best of it is in the phyllo, the banana filling and the caramel sauce. Most of the components of baklava of banana can be made ahead of time, but they must be put together at the last minute or the cook will end up with a soggy Leaning Tower of Pisa. 'Comforting' Baklava of Banana Preparation time: 40 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes 10 sheets | The Easily Handled Phyllo Pastry Challenges Its Puffy Rival |
330570_3 | economy is based on exporting commodities, mainly bananas, coffee, sugar, cotton, beef, shellfish, sesame, forest products and a little gold. It imports machinery, consumer goods and petroleum. Until now the gap has been filled by credits from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and some aid from Nordic countries. A Soviet Foreign Ministry Official, Yan Burlyai, told a news conference in Moscow that his Government was providing $333 million annually in credits to Nicaragua and $25 million worth of wheat and rice free, Reuters reported. Continued Soviet Help Doubted Although Mr. Burlyai said that Moscow would be willing to continue its Nicaraguan aid, Professor Taylor and other analysts said that with the Soviet geopolitical interest fading, they doubted Moscow would continue its support for much longer. ''I can't imagine anybody else's lap that Nicaragua will fall on except ours,'' said Professor Taylor. The extent of economic assistance for Nicaragua, Administration officials said, will depend in large measure on the arrangements that the Chamorro Government makes with the I.M.F., an international agency that lends to countries facing severe short-term economic strains. But to qualify for the money, borrowers have to pursue sometimes painful economic changes. In Eastern Europe, the Philippines and other countries, agreements with the I.M.F. have been a seal of approval for other assistance. The I.M.F. could lend Nicaragua about $270 million over three years, but would probably force the state to sell off state enterprises and take even more austere measures to cut inflation, now about 25 percent a month. $250 Million Overdue To get money from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, Nicaragua still has to clear up $250 million in overdue debts to both organizations. Officials here said that there would probably be some international help with those arrears. Both organizations' lending programs, which are intended for long-term construction, could be critical to building up power plants, telecommunications networks and other such structures to support expanded business and investment. They can also aid agriculture and social projects like schools and hospitals. In addition to lifting the trade embargo, Administration officials said they are studying ways to provide trade preferences to Nicaragua that are similar to those already offered most developing countries, including neighbors in the Caribbean Basin. Also, the Administration wants to restore Nicaragua's quota to sell sugar in the United States. The quota was withdrawn early in the last decade. TURNOVER IN NICARAGUA | Lenders Say Managua Has a Long Road Back |
325095_0 | LEAD: The United States and three South American countries have reached tentative agreement on a plan to cooperate in combating drug traffic throughout the hemisphere, Administration officials said tonight. The United States and three South American countries have reached tentative agreement on a plan to cooperate in combating drug traffic throughout the hemisphere, Administration officials said tonight. The agreement is to be signed when President Bush meets on Thursday with the Presidents of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia in Cartagena, a Colombian resort city. Under the plan, the United States would provide additional assistance to law enforcement agencies in the three Andean countries to help them eradicate coca crops and destroy laboratories used to produce cocaine. Washington will also step up efforts to curtail the illegal export of semiautomatic weapons and other firearms from the United States, Administrattion officials said. President Virgilio Barco Vargas of Colombia says that drug smugglers armed with such weapons have killed many people in his country. Controlling the Ingredients Under the draft accord, the United States would take new steps to control the export of chemicals frequently used in the illegal manufacture of narcotics, Administration officials said. Such chemicals include acetone and ethyl ether. Colombia and Bolivia have repeatedly called on the United States to halt the supply of such chemicals. The Peruvian Ambassador to the United States, Cesar G. Atala, said that the basic elements of the agreement were worked out last month by officials from the four countries at a meeting in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The United States delegation was led by Michael M. Skol, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South America, and Parker W. Borg, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics Matters. The document drafted at Santa Cruz was sent to Washington, Bogota, La Paz and Lima for review and final approval by the four Governments. Only a few details remain to be cleared up, a State Department official said. Under the agreement, the United States is to encourage other Western countries to provide economic aid to the three Andean nations, which would lose hundreds of thousands of jobs if they succeed in suppressing the illicit production of narcotics. Peru's President to Attend President Alan Garcia Perez of Peru originally threatened to stay away from the meeting to protest the United States invasion of Panama. He now plans to attend, reassured by Mr. Bush's promise that the invasion force will be withdrawn | U.S. and 3 Latin Lands Agree On Plan to Fight Drug Traffic |
329606_3 | of moral philosophy may be called vices, aware though I am that the author is not vicious and that only the moral duty of candor requires such stern evaluation: He gives almost no biographical information. We are told at the start that at the age of 16 or 17 he was distressed by the sight of the unemployed in England. At the University of Oxford he was attracted by Communism as preferable to a conservatism toadying to the Nazis and Fascists, but he underwent an intellectual conversion to the logical positivism of the Vienna Circle and won a fellowship at All Souls' College. As an intelligence officer during World War II he studied the central command of the German SS, including the Gestapo. Later he worked for the Labor Government and was involved in the European response to the Marshall Plan before returning to university life in 1947. He has always been a socialist; he has always been attracted by the deception and intrigue of wartime secret intelligence; and he is now 75 years old. These biographical notes, or most of them, would fit many English academics who were undergraduates in the 1930's. They tell us almost nothing about the social or sexual or spiritual life of the man, none of those intimate facts that beyond doubt have a great deal to do with how a moral philosopher has framed his questions and his answers. It is no accident that the most influential of all moralists of the West, St. Augustine, was the most generous provider of such information, and no accident that Rousseau, seeing the connection, imitated St. Augustine's ''Confessions.'' In comparison with these masters of self-revelation, Sir Stuart Hampshire remains a reticent Englishman. His bow to history does not lead him to engage in any steady contemplation of how moral ideas have developed, historically. I do not know how one can engage in moral philosophy without a close examination of the growth or decline of particular moral concepts. He speaks of history without entering on the historical enterprise. Another vice is that his persuasive celebration of imagination carries him on to a position that seems essentially and hopelessly Romantic: through imagination one can achieve transcendence of time, and this transcendence consists in the uncovering of one's ''primordial self.'' Why should anyone glory in this recovery of one's own emotional patterns, abstracted from time? Why is the recovered pattern | TO BE BETTER, THINK HARDER |
329725_6 | been slashing management layers for a decade - for middle managers, a disastrous trend for middle managers, but for young M.B.A.'s, a quicker chance at a job with meaningful responsibilities and less competition for the top spots. Simultaneously, companies have been expanding their international operations at a rapid rate, opening branch offices, subsidiaries and manufacturing facilities around the globe. This has put young managers trained in business practices of different cultures on the fast track -a fact that has not gone unnoticed by ambitious business students. ''Until recently, all we could do is talk about the glamour of an international job,'' said Gerald J. Mussari, a sector personnel manager at Procter & Gamble who has helped the company recruit international students at Cornell for several years. ''Now we can bring back the Cornellians we recruited three, four years ago and let them tell first-hand about the challenges and the glamour and the excitement. We have the credibility of a track record.'' WHAT STUDENTS ARE SAYING Among the 67,000 students who garner degrees from the nation's business schools each year - a total that has remained fairly constant in recent years - a shift in sentiment away from Wall Street and toward corporate America is evident. ''Investment banking isn't a high-profile choice among any of my friends,'' said Samuel O. Sheagren, 25, a second-year management student at Kellogg. ''For one thing, Wall Street still seems too unstable. And for another, many of us want to analyze businesses and then do something about their problems, not just concentrate on making markets.'' Jane Gerb, a 26-year-old operations major at the Columbia Business School, is similarly impervious to Wall Street's allure. She expects to work for the General Motors Corporation when she graduates in June. ''Finance is still where the big money is and there are still students going into it because of that,'' she said. ''But increasingly, students and companies are recognizing that there are other lucrative and satisfying careers that M.B.A.'s can pursue.'' Often experienced in the workplace, M.B.A. candidates bring special insights to career choices. ''I've worked on trading floors, and yes it can be exciting when things are fast, but it is boring and depressing when things are slow,'' said Cynthia Merrick, a 26-year-old student at Fuqua who worked with Merrill Lynch for four years before going for her M.B.A. ''For me, now, brand management sounds a lot more exciting.'' | Business Graduates: Shying Away From Wall Street |
329900_1 | been one of the most remarkable aspects of China's former open-door policy. The basic change in the new rules is a requirement that university graduates work for five years before they go abroad to study, although students with relatives overseas can pay for an exemption from the work requirement. The regulations seem to be motivated by Government alarm over the large number of top students, educated essentially for no charge at China's best schools, who go overseas and fail to return to contribute to their country. ''It is a continuation of their concern over the brain drain,'' said Karen C. Stanton, consul at the United States Embassy in Beijing. ''They are losing their best and their brightest, and the reality is that past efforts have failed to control this flood.'' Although Chinese officials agree that the policy is aimed mostly at preventing an exodus of top minds, the new rules come at a time when China is again emphasizing ideological devotion over professional ability in hiring and promotion. Socialism's 'Gravediggers' Chinese and Western officials say the authorities are also concerned by the support lent by students abroad to the democracy movement at home. ''The Government does not want to help educate the gravediggers of socialism,''a Chinese teacher said. The document describing the new rules was circulated by the state Education Commission. It states that only students who have not yet reached their final year in a university, or students with Chinese relatives overseas, can win exemptions from the work requirement. Students seeking the latter exemption must apply for identification papers from a provincial Government office indicating that they related to a Chinese person overseas. ''I think there are going to a lot of fake relatives,'' a Chinese intellectual said. ''The authorities can't possibly check into everyone's background.'' Students eligible for the exemptions must pay for each of the years of university-level schooling they completed. Graduates must pay the equivalent of about $530 for each of their college years; students at the masters level, $850 per year, and students at the doctoral level, $1,275. If they return to China within eight years, their money will be refunded. Few Can Afford Exemption Fees Most students and their immediate families could not afford such fees, although some will be able to take advantage of loans from relatives abroad. Several Western diplomats said the loopholes softened the impact of the rules. They noted that | China Acts to Restrict Study Abroad |
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