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285984_1 | power will wane. A few weeks ago, a bipartisan Labor Department commission, composed of business and labor leaders and academics, issued a report called ''Investing in People: A Strategy to Address America's Workforce Crisis.'' The commission's report cites many strategies that have been suggested in recent years to reverse academic failure and offers one more idea. It may be the most important. It involves linking work with school. What is the purpose of education if not, at a minimum, to prepare people for work? After all, at the most basic level, the skills for successful work and successful living are the same. Students must be made to see the relationship between scholastic achievement and employment prospects. Nothing, the report says, can make this relationship clearer than the business community's involvement in creating incentives for achievement and the community's assurance of employment for those with adequate academic records. Thus, one of the commission's recommendations is that school transcripts be made an integral part of the employment process. Employers should require transcripts in making hiring decisions. It is not inconceivable to imagine students being issued portable transcripts at graduation that they could carry to job interviews. Closely related to this proposal would be the development of national achievement tests that students could voluntarily take to demonstrate proficiency in a variety of academic and vocational subjects. The results could be included in their transcripts. Another recommendation would have state employment agencies operate placement services in the schools. While many schools diligently try to place students in higher education, very few offer similar support to students seeking jobs. I would go even further than the commission's report in some respects. The Job Training Partnership Act has been a success because it has directly involved local and regional businesses, through private industry councils, in decisions to allocate Federal funds for training. Federal education money, particularly vocational dollars, could be channeled through private industry councils or similar bodies to make training more ''market-driven'' and thus more relevant. With more direct involvement by business leaders at local levels, money would almost certainly be better spent on educating students for what businesses need. Linking work with school, of course, does not mean simply linking work with formal schooling. It means making education - and a culture of learning - relevant to a lifetime of work. The most important recommendation the commission makes in this regard is to elliminate | Education and Work: The Missing Link |
285888_5 | the brand name K-Whit Tools. With refrigerant at its present price, he said, his machine would save enough to pay for itself after 300 cars. Commitment by General Motors ''If the price of this stuff gets up high enough, even a junkyard will want to buy one,'' said John Tyson, vice president of the SPX Corporation, Muskegon, Mich. His company sells recycling equipment under the brand names of Robinair, Kent-Moore and Bear Automotive. The General Motors Corporation announced in August that it would make the Kent-Moore model available to its 10,000 dealers and that the dealers would have to have the equipment for 1991 cars. Others are not certain that the economics will induce thousands of small businesses to invest. But some service stations may do so and publicize the fact to capitalize on public concern about the ozone, experts predict. ''I never hear people talk about toxic chemicals, old-growth forests or things like that,'' said Mr. Doniger, whose organization concerns itself with a varity of environmental problems. ''But people know about the hole in the ozone layer. They care about this stuff.'' The idea appeals to some service mechanics. ''I'm an environmental goof,'' said Richard A. De Silva, owner of De Silva's Auto Air Conditioning in East Detroit, Mich. ''I like to get things cleaned up. And we've got to protect the kids coming up.'' Mr. De Silva, who has 11 service bays, has been using a recycler for eight months, cutting his refrigerant use drastically. It has already paid for itself, he said. Two Machines at Once Efforts to protect the ozone may give the manufacturers of recycling equipment a double boon: one now, when service stations rush to buy so they can continue servicing air- conditioners, and one when the next generation of air-conditioners comes along. Those air-conditioners will use a refrigerant that does not damage the ozone, but it is likely to be so expensive that recycling will be the norm. And the two refrigerants cannot be mixed, so two machines will be needed as long as both kinds of air-conditioners are on the road. Industry experts think a side-effect of widespread recycling will be a reduction in the number of service locations for air-conditioning work. The business may become similar to transmission work, with car owners either going to a specialist or to a local gas station that farms out the work to the specialist. | A New Effort to Protect Ozone |
285859_7 | of young adults have skills at the 2 and 3 levels, the needs of farming and transportation work. The Unskilled Will Be Trapped Evidence strongly indicates that these young workers, who are entering the labor force with inadequate skills, will find themselves in an employment backwater. ''Well educated people are not only the most likely to find employment,'' Mr. Bailey explained, ''but also are the most likely to receive training from their employers. Once trained, their greater productivity earns them more. They switch jobs less frequently and are rarely unemployed. If they change jobs, they find another easily and are more likely to receive further training from new employers.'' But those who start without adequate academic and problem-solving skills fall further behind, he said. ''The well educated face a future of expanding job opportunities and rising wages,'' said Sue E. Berryman, director of the Institute on Education and the Economy at Columbia University's Teachers College, ''while those not well educated face a future of contracting opportunities and poverty.'' The National Assessment of Educational Progress has found some recent improvements in the reading ability of students still in school. But those gains have come primarily in the lower grades, in the most basic reading tasks and among youngsters from low-income families. Thus, millions of students are still underequipped to participate in the emerging job market. Investment in Education Urged ''Our least advantaged students are now drowning in 10 feet of water instead of 15 feet of water, but they're still drowning,'' said Ms. Berryman. ''Lots more are drowning in five feet.' Many business executives, like Mr. Kearns of Xerox, have urged the investment of as much economic and political capital as is needed to overhaul and improve American public education, and thus produce a more highly skilled work force. ''We cannot compete in a world-class economy without a world-class work force,'' Mr. Kearns said, ''and we cannot have a world-class work force without world-class schools.'' In the absence of improved schools, said Mr. Packer of the Hudson Institute, the alternatives are limited: Industry can send skilled jobs overseas, it can automate to accommodate a low-skilled domestic labor force or it can decide against upgrading its operations and the concommitant skill levels of employees. ''Jobs will get filled,'' Mr. Packer said, ''but you're talking about lower productivity and thus a lower standard of living for everyone.'' Next: Basic learning on the job. | Impending U.S. Jobs 'Disaster': Work Force Unqualified to Work |
284811_1 | have cause for worry. Industrial emissions of carbon dioxide, which scientists believe must be limited to slow global warming, could be 70 percent higher than current levels by 2020, assuming moderate economic growth, according to a major study released today by the World Energy Conference. Changes in the Atmosphere ''It is unambiguous and beyond doubt that we are changing the composition of the atmosphere by a measurable and important amount,'' said Lord Marshall of Goring, chairman of Britain's Central Electric Generating Board,'' in a keynote address. The program includes an outline for a panel discussion on global warming, listing topics for discussion, but begins by saying, ''The existence of a greenhouse effect is not to be debated.'' For such a huge group of energy suppliers to put price, supply and production technology in second place is surprising, many of those present said. John Wakeham, Britain's Secretary of State for Energy, contrasted the concern now with the belief by Western nations in the 1970's that oil and other fuels were dwindling. That, he said, ''has been revealed as a gloomy fantasy and one of the most spectacularly mistaken forecasts of recent history.'' But even after the oil glut of 1986 drowned the talk of shortage, the talk did not shift to the environment. ''You would never have heard this three years ago,'' said Elihu Bergman, executive director of Americans for Energy Independence, a conservation organization based in Washington. ''This conference is symbolically legitimizing what we have known in the States: environmental policy is driving energy policy.'' A speech by Lee M. Thomas, the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, reinforced the point. Mr. Thomas detailed decisions ranging from handling of the wastes from oil drilling to requiring anti-pollution equipment on power plants that cast his agency in the role of making energy policy. In another speech, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney made a similar point. ''Environmental sensitivity and economic growth, fueled by energy, go hand in hand,'' he said. ''We no longer have the luxury of trying to have one without the other.'' Growth in Energy Use The carbon dioxide study, assembled by 30 experts from 18 countries and 9 international organizations, assumed only a small increase in each person's energy use over the period, but a near-doubling of the population in the third world, from 3.6 billion in 1985 to 6.3 billion in 2020. The conference also released a separate | Environment Dominates 91-Nation Energy Talks |
284765_0 | LEAD: Reports of hurricane damage to a major Caribbean refinery sent gasoline and heating oil futures prices surging on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday. Reports of hurricane damage to a major Caribbean refinery sent gasoline and heating oil futures prices surging on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday. Late in the day, the Amerada Hess Corporation confirmed rumors that had circulated in the market that its huge St. Croix refinery had been badly damaged by the storm and would be shut down for about 60 days. The refinery, with a capacity of 545,000 barrels a day, supplies markets in the Eastern United States and the Gulf of Mexico. The October contract for unleaded gasoline soared 2.07 cents to close at 59.74 cents a gallon after trading as high as 60.20 cents. Heating oil for October delivery jumped 1.60 cents, to 56.55 cents a gallon. Other contract months also had strong gains. Traders said the strength in product prices helped buoy crude oil prices. The October contract for West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark grade of United States crude oil, rose 8 cents to close at $19.64 a 42-gallon barrel. November crude rose 29 cents, to $19.68, and December jumped 32 cents, to $19.46 a barrel. Coffee futures prices surged on the Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange in New York amid developments that at least momentarily appeared to improve the chances for a resumption of export quotas to support coffee prices. Coffee futures settled 1.88 cents to 3 cents higher, with the contract for delivery in December at 82.55 cents for a pound of green, unroasted coffee. The market, which had languished for most of the day, surged late in the session on news that President Bush had offered support to President Virgilio Barco of Colombia for a revival of coffee export quotas. Coffee prices have fallen by about a third, hurting Colombia's economy, since the International Coffee Organization suspended export quotas in July, largely because of Washington's dissatisfaction with the system. But the market quickly lost interest in the letter from Mr. Bush after learning the President had not altered the United States' previously stated conditions for rejoining the coffee pact: no more sales of coffee to nonmember nations and greater availability of high-quality arabica coffee beans. The letter was quickly replaced by another ostensibly bullish factor: a report that Jorge Cardenas, president of the Colombia National Coffee Federation, would | News of Hurricane Damage Sends Oil and Gasoline Up |
284859_3 | communicated to Pan Am. Aviation security rules have been tightened since Flight 103 exploded over Scotland. For example, United States airlines flying from Europe and the Middle East are now required to inspect by hand or with X-rays baggage checked by passengers. But the special inspection on which the fines were based was aimed at determining what security measures were taken in London and Frankfurt on Dec. 21. Most of the penalties were assessed for violations that occurred in London. The agency faulted Pan Am's process for screening and searching baggage of passengers who joined the flight there. The agency also said that Pan Am failed to comply with several security rules in Frankfurt. Investigators have said the bomb was probably put on the plane there. Focus Is on Frankfurt Two months before the bombing, the F.A.A. investigated Pan Am's security at Frankfurt and recommended a few changes. But security was found adequate in most respects and there were no fines, according to the company. However, a more exhaustive inquiry after the bombing showed that the company did not obey all the rules, even though there had been warnings of possible terrorist attacks. The most important flaws were in the way the company selected certain passengers for special searching, based on their nationality, their point of origin and their answers to special questions meant to screen for risks. The aviation agency today said that Pan Am ''did not have a uniform tracking system at Frankfurt'' to make sure that all passengers selected for more thorough searching had been properly identified and that the security measuress had been carried out. The agency also said that in Frankfurt five passengers who were identified by Pan Am security personnel for extra scrutiny were not subjected to personal searches, nor was their carry-on baggage closely checked, as called for under the rules. Also in Frankfurt, the agency said, the company had not made certain that the baggage of people who checked in from connecting flights was searched properly. And Pan Am failed to conduct a required search of the plane's cargo area before loading at Frankfurt and at London. But if the bomb that destroyed the plane was contained in checked luggage put on in Frankfurt by an unwitting passenger traveling not fitting the profile used to select passengers for extra scrutiny, it is not clear that any of these failures is directly pertinent. | U.S. Fines Pan Am for Lax Security on Day of Jet Bombing |
284704_0 | LEAD: Jon Hassell has taken a long way around to reach basic musical ideas. The trumpeter and composer has studied Asian and African music, and he uses sophisticated electronic gadgets to alter and multiply the sound of his trumpet, turning single lines into phantom choirs. But when the New Jon Hassell Group performed Monday at the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center in Jon Hassell has taken a long way around to reach basic musical ideas. The trumpeter and composer has studied Asian and African music, and he uses sophisticated electronic gadgets to alter and multiply the sound of his trumpet, turning single lines into phantom choirs. But when the New Jon Hassell Group performed Monday at the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center in Manhattan, concluding a three-night stand, his ''fourth-world music'' was little more than conventional vamps with evanescent glimmers of melody. The model, more than any ethnic music, could have been Miles Davis's ''Bitches Brew.'' Mr. Hassell likes to have his band's instruments - keyboards, bass, electric guitar and percussion - blend in an atmospheric murk, thick and slightly ominous. The bass line and percussion, mostly on hand drums, were a muffled pulse within sustained modal chords; Brian Eno, the producer and composer who was mixing the sound, gave careful attention to the shifting washes of keyboard tone. Above the vamps, fitfully, Mr. Hassell played trumpet with the curving, microtonally inflected phrasing he learned from an Indian raga master. The music is made to float rather than to tell a story; when it succeeds, it is hypnotic. But at Monday's concert, Mr. Hassell often stretched his material too far, and the repetition became numbing rather than ecstatic. The prelude to the concert was a chance to hear a sound installation by Mr. Eno, which uses sounds from a Colombian Amazon rain forest -birds, toads, mammals - and a hint of synthesizer music from more than 100 hidden speakers. Emerging from empty air, the richly varied sounds (as well as 16 palm trees) lend exoticism to a shopping-mall atrium. ''Tropical Rain Forest Sound Installation'' may be heard from noon to 2 P.M. and 5 to 7 P.M. daily, through Oct. 8. | Review/Music; Jon Hassell, With Trumpet And Electronics |
282863_0 | LEAD: Movie rights to the story of the life and death of the Brazilian defender of the Amazon rain forest Francisco (Chico) Mendes have been sold by his family to Peter Guber and Jon Peters, producers of the summer blockbuster ''Batman'' and of ''Rain Man,'' which won the Academy Award as best picture of 1988. Movie rights to the story of the life and death of the Brazilian defender of the Amazon rain forest Francisco (Chico) Mendes have been sold by his family to Peter Guber and Jon Peters, producers of the summer blockbuster ''Batman'' and of ''Rain Man,'' which won the Academy Award as best picture of 1988. Several producers and authors have announced books and films since Mr. Mendes, a leader of the rubber tappers' union, was murdered on Dec. 22, 1988, because of his attempts to keep cattle ranchers from destroying the forest. Mr. Guber and Mr. Peters said today that they had secured rights from Mr. Mendes's widow, Ilzamar, and other heirs, and from Gilson Pescador, secretary of the Chico Mendes Foundation and a prominent figure in the story. The rights cost nearly $1 million, Mr. Guber said. But Stephan Schwartzman, an anthropologist with the Environmental Defense Fund who shared Mr. Mendes's efforts to save the rain forest, said today that Mr. Pescador had been removed from his foundation post and that the foundation had split with Mrs. Mendes over the issue of filming the story. Mr. Schwartzman said many foundation members felt a film would impede the continuation of Mr. Mendes's work. A Redford Project Robert Redford, who in association with 20th Century-Fox bought a Vanity Fair magazine article by Alex Shoumatoff about Mr. Mendes, has had a project on the rain forest in development for six and one-half years. Mr. Redford said today, ''My proposal was to support Brazilian film makers. The real Chico Mendes story is better told by the country in which it happened.'' To secure the rights to Mr. Mendes's story, Mr. Guber said he had ''someone in Brazil working on it every day for eight months.'' The company leased airplanes to fly the Mendes family from Xapuri, the small settlement in the forest where they live, to Rio de Janeiro for meetings. The planes were also used to fly in a videocassette recorder and cassettes of the movies that Mr. Guber and Mr. Peters have made. ''We auditioned for the | Rain Forest Defender's Life Story Sold for Film |
282711_0 | LEAD: The United States announced today that it has expanded economic sanctions against Panama in an effort to force Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega to relinquish power there. The United States announced today that it has expanded economic sanctions against Panama in an effort to force Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega to relinquish power there. The State Department spokeswoman, Margaret D. Tutwiler, said the measures included suspending imports of Panamanian sugar and widening the list of Panamanian companies and individuals associated with General Noriega to whom Americans will be barred from making payments. The United States first imposed sanctions against Panama last year but so far they have failed to budge General Noriega, who is under United States indictment on charges of illegal drug trafficking. ''All of these actions are a direct result of General Noriega's continued unwillingness to respect the will of the Panamanian people by stepping down and permitting the installation of a freely elected government,'' Miss Tutwiler said. She said Panama's 1989 sugar quota of 30,537 metric tons has been reallocated to the other countries, which she did not name, that take part in the United States sugar quota program. The loss of the sugar quota denies the Panamanian Government close to $15 million in revenue, she said. In addition, Miss Tutwiler said, the United States trade representative has suspended a further quota of 23,043 metric tons to which Panama would have been entitled because of a quota increase. She also said that on Aug. 31, the Bush Administration expanded a list, first published last year, of Panamanian companies and individuals affiliated with General Noriega and the military-backed administration to which Americans cannot make payments. The list is undergoing further revisions and more additions will be published soon, she said, But she could not say how broad the expansion would be or how much revenue this action would keep from the Panamanian Government. Although she acknowledged that the United States objective was General Noriega's removal as head of the Panamanian Defense Forces, she said the Administration could not be certain the new sanctions would achieve that goal. President Bush opposed sanctions on China after Beijing's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators last June, saying sanctions would hurt the people more than the leadership. Asked to square that rationale with increased sanctions against Panama, Miss Tutwiler said, ''And as far as hurting the people, Noriega is hurting them more by staying.'' | U.S. Expands Its Sanctions Against Panama |
282687_0 | LEAD: Coffee futures prices plunged yesterday on New York's Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange on indications the United States will not support a return to international export quotas that would raise coffee prices. Coffee futures prices plunged yesterday on New York's Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange on indications the United States will not support a return to international export quotas that would raise coffee prices. On other markets, sugar futures rose sharply; grains and soybeans were lower; energy futures weakened; precious metals advanced, and livestock and meat futures were mixed. All New York coffee futures except the contract for September delivery plunged the permitted daily limit of 6 cents a pound. The September contract, which does not have a daily limit, tumbled 6.68 cents, to 81.48 cents a pound, a two-and-a-half-week low. Analysts said prices plummeted amid panicked selling prompted by a report that the Bush Administration will reject Colombia's plea for United States support in pushing for a resumption of export quotas among producer members of the International Coffee Organization. Quotas Suspended in July The 74-nation cartel suspended the quotas in July amid discord caused in part by American demands for controls on sales of coffee at cut-rate prices to Soviet-bloc nations that are not members of the coffee organization. The United States is the organization's largest consumer member. A return to export quotas would lead to higher coffee prices and would help the economy of Colombia, which needs money to battle cocaine cartels. Sugar futures prices soared in New York after the United States announced it had raised its 1989 sugar import quota by 860,000 metric tons, to 1.99 million, and had extended the import quota period by nine months to Sept. 30, 1990. Sugar futures rose 0.37 cent to 0.54 cent, with October at 13.95 cents a pound. Soybean and Corn Down Corn and soybean futures fell moderately on the Chicago Board of Trade, under pressure from a lack of overnight frost in the Midwest and forecasts for improved crop weather next week. Oat and wheat futures also retreated. After the close, the Agriculture Department issued a new crop report revising downward its August estimates for 1989 United States corn and soybean production and raising its wheat-crop estimate. West Texas Intermediate crude oil settled 6 cents to 7 cents lower on the New York Mercantile Exchange, with October at $19.70 a barrel; heating oil was 0.64 cent | Coffee Prices Fall on News Of U.S. Stance on Quotas |
282865_1 | include limits on where landfills can be placed and how they can be operated. Although states set landfill standards, they will have to meet the minimums set by the Federal agency. As a result, new landfills are becoming increasingly complex and expensive, costing as much as $400,000 an acre to prepare. Holes in the ground generally will not do; they are likely to be too close to the ground water level. New landfills have complex bottom layers to trap and treat contaminant-laden water leaking through the buried trash. Also, methane gas produced by rotting garbage is in some cases being collected and used to generate electricity. And the trend is to extract more from what people throw away, using separation systems and the like. Already, automobile tires are extracted at some landfills for use as a fuel. ''In the future, you are going to see yard wastes separated at the landfill and composted,'' said Donald A. Wallgren, vice president for environmental management at Waste Management Inc., the largest company in the waste-disposal field. ''Wood will be separated as well and chipped so it can be used as a fuel. There will be more emphasis on processing waste and turning it into useful products.'' As higher costs and stiffer technical requirements drive many municipalities out of the trash disposal business, opportunities are opening for companies prepared to meet the new standards. ''We anticipated greater regulation and prepared for it,'' said John G. Rangos Sr., president of the Chambers Development Company, which operates the Southern Alleghenies landfill, near Johnstown, Pa. Even as recycling programs grow and trash-to-energy plants are built, the need for landfills will continue, industry officials agree. Not all materials lend themselves to recycling -disposable baby diapers are an example - and the ash left from burning needs to be placed in the ground. Even in the older parts of the Southern Alleghenies landfill, where trash is still being buried under the less stringent previous rules, waste disposal has come a long way from the old trash heap. Among the first things a visitor notices here are that there are no odors and few bugs and that not much trash is in sight. The active dumping area is confined to several hundred square feet. ''The idea is to not have a big open mess,'' said Steven D. Menoff, an engineer with Chambers. Each evening, the day's load of trash is | Making the Town Dump Sanitary |
284309_0 | LEAD: THE weekly Chronicle of Higher Education is filled with persuasive advertisements about jobs for development officials. In collegiate circles, development means fund raising. THE weekly Chronicle of Higher Education is filled with persuasive advertisements about jobs for development officials. In collegiate circles, development means fund raising. William P. McGoldrick, vice president for institute relations at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, N.Y., observed in a recent interview that development people tend to change jobs frequently because ''they are contacted on behalf of presidents whose success depends upon ability to raise money and they are offered good pay.'' He continued, ''I have a theory that when trustees hire a president, they say: 'We need more money for development. We want a president who can open doors.' '' As a result, Mr. McGoldrick said, ''Some of my people get several calls a month about changing jobs.'' Marcia K. Hopple, a fund-raiser for Ohio State University, agreed. ''It is fairly common for us to move every three years or so and it was tempting in my case,'' she said. Miss Hopple, who is also an Ohio State alumna, opened the university's regional office in New York early in 1988. She said the office was the first ever for a state-supported university. She estimates that 7,000 of the university's 300,000 graduates live and work in metropolitan New York. Ohio State recently completed a five-year, $350 million fund-raising campaign. Mr. McGoldrick of Rensselaer noted that the engineering college was beginning a $200 million campaign, the largest in its history. ''I feel as nervous as the mother of the bride,'' he said. Many top collegiate fund-raisers earn more than $100,000 and are usually paid more than college admissions and placement officials. ''Even newcomers can earn in the ''low 20's,'' Mr. McGoldrick said. In contrast, 20 years ago top development officers generally did not hold titles like vice president, and salaries were low, he said. But the life of a development officer can be discouraging, Mr. McGoldrick said, because there are so many continuing campaigns. ''I preach patience to my people,'' he said. ''Development people are under terrific pressure to produce,'' he said, adding that it takes time to develop friendly relations with alumni, corporations and others needed for major gifts - a reason he deplores rapid job-changing. Mr. McGoldrick, who has been with Rensselaer for nine years, heads a 91-member department that includes 20 professional fund-raisers, | Careers; Fund-Raisers In Demand At Colleges |
284453_1 | Admiral in the British Navy. It has 12 categories, which were originally based on the effect of various wind speeds on the amount of canvas that a full-rigged British Navy frigate of the 19th century could carry. For example, a gale, defined as a wind of 34 to 40 knots (39 to 46 miles per hour), has a wind force of 8 on the scale and probably produces wave heights of around 18 feet from trough to crest, Mr. Sigrist said The prediction also depends on fetch, or the area of water the wind blows over, he explained. A strong wind over a large portion of ocean means bigger waves, and conversely a smaller body of water means less chance for large waves to build up. The weather bureau obtains information confirming the height of large open-ocean waves from ships at sea. The measurement is not done with a yardstick, but is based on the size of the vessel, Mr. Sigrist said. ''You get a feeling for wave heights when you know the size of the ship, whether it is a 25-foot sailboat or an 800-foot supertanker,'' he said. Meteorologists do have more definitive ways of measuring wave heights, Mr. Sigrist said. ''Satellites with radar altimeters are constantly interrogating the surface of the ocean with radio waves,'' he said. ''Believe it or not, these measurements are accurate within a centimeter.'' Satellite readings are especially useful for long-period waves, or the buildup of water on one side of the ocean, like El Nino, he said. A tsunami, Mr. Sigrist's specialty, is a long-period wave almost always generated by a large earthquake near the coast or in the ocean. The vertical motion of the earth's crust under the ocean is transferred to the body of water. These waves move very quickly, perhaps 500 miles an hour, the said. ''In the open ocean, one would not notice their presence,'' he said, ''but when they come close to shore and feel the bottom, the depth decreases, the period, or wave length, decreases, and the height increases, with devastating effect as the water level rapidly rises.'' Readers are invited to submit questions about science to Questions, Science Times, The New York Times, 229 West 43d Street, New York, N.Y. 10036. Questions of general interest will be answered in this column, but requests for medical advice cannot be honored and unpublished letters cannot be answered individually. | Q&A |
281186_0 | LEAD: Survivors of a jetliner crash in the Amazon attributed their rescue today to an unemployed 19-year-old passenger who proved to be schooled in the ways of the rain forest. Survivors of a jetliner crash in the Amazon attributed their rescue today to an unemployed 19-year-old passenger who proved to be schooled in the ways of the rain forest. Marooned in thick jungle without food and fresh water, the crew and passengers pinned their hopes Tuesday morning on Alfonso Saravia, a short, unassuming man who had suffered a deep head wound in the crash on Sunday night, which killed 13 passengers and injured 30. Forty-one people survived. ''I felt it was my duty to try it,'' Mr. Saravia told a Reuters reporter who reached the base camp for rescue operations on a ranch in Sao Jose do Xingu, a remote village in the east. In the crash, the Boeing 737 cut a 200-yard-long slice in the jungle, apparently not large enough to attract the attention of search planes that survivors heard flying overhead on Monday and Tuesday. Rain and smoke from forest fires also hampered the search. They Set Out on Foot With several passengers delirious from their injuries, Mr. Saravia, a native of the Amazon region, decided to set out on foot at the head of four-member party searching for help. After walking for three hours through the jungle, Mr. Saravia's group came upon a ranch house. An older passenger, Epaminondas Souza Chaves, was driven to a second ranch, where civil aviation authorities were contacted by amateur radio. Today, the last survivors were raised by winch from the crash site into helicopters. During the day, Brazilian television broadcast live reports from Brasilia where the injured could be seen hobbling weakly off rescue planes or rushed on stretchers to helicopters. Lost Navigational Systems The drama started Sunday afternoon when the regularly scheduled Varig flight took off from Maraba for a 40-minute trip to Belem. Shortly after takeoff, the airplane lost all its navigational systems, said Solange Pereira de Mello, a flight attendant interviewed at the rescue camp. After drifting over the Amazon for three hours, the pilot, Cesar Augusto Garcez, started searching in the dark for a place to crash land. ''The pilot warned that he was flying in circles until the fuel was used up,'' one passenger, Maria Ines Araujo Coimbra, recalled today on television. ''Then he told everyone | Teen-Age Hero in Amazon Jet Rescue |
281143_0 | LEAD: Women's blood cholesterol levels worsen abruptly after menopause, and this may help explain their increasing risk of heart attacks, a new study indicates. Women's blood cholesterol levels worsen abruptly after menopause, and this may help explain their increasing risk of heart attacks, a new study indicates. While heart disease is rare in women before menopause, doctors have long believed that the risk increases dramatically after they reach 55 years of age. In a study published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, doctors watched changes in two main components of cholesterol as 541 women underwent menopause. The components are high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, and low-density lipoprotein, or LDL. Doctors believe that HDL protects against heart disease, while LDL increases the risk. The researchers found that women's HDL levels dropped 4 milligrams per deciliter of blood when they went through menopause, while their LDL rose 12 milligrams. A deciliter is one-tenth of a liter, or 3.38 fluid ounces. 'Negative Changes in Lipids' The findings support the idea that ''menopause does lead to increased risk of coronary artery disease in women because of the negative changes in lipids,'' said Dr. Karen A. Matthews, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh who directed the study. When menopausal women took estrogen supplements, there was little change in their blood cholesterol levels, the study found. Dr. Matthews said more research was needed before researchers could recommend routine use of estrogen to protect against heart disease. Estrogen supplements after menopause have been linked with an increase risk of some forms of cancer. ''As women enter the period when they are likely to undergo menopause, which is around 50, it's an ideal time for them to have their cholesterol levels regularly checked,'' Dr. Matthews said. ''If they begin to experience declines in HDL or increases in LDL, it would be very useful to alter dietary factors and exercise to have a more health-promoting life style.'' The 541 women in the study were 42 to 50 years of age and had not undergone menopause when the study began. Over the next two and a half years, 101 of them stopped menstruating and 32 began taking estrogen supplements. Their HDL and LDL levels were compared with those of women the same age who had not reached menopause. HEALTH | Menopause Linked to Cholesterol Changes |
286228_0 | LEAD: Moments after a helicopter lifts off from a forest base camp northwest of here, the scars of development appear among the tumultuous greens of the tropical rain forest: the felled trees, the bulldozers, the bright orange mud of the logging roads, the smudges of smoke alongside, where slash-and-burn farmers have followed the loggers in. Moments after a helicopter lifts off from a forest base camp northwest of here, the scars of development appear among the tumultuous greens of the tropical rain forest: the felled trees, the bulldozers, the bright orange mud of the logging roads, the smudges of smoke alongside, where slash-and-burn farmers have followed the loggers in. But there are also significant signs of conservation and reforestation since the Indonesian Government began enforcing its longstanding environmental laws. In a crackdown on violators, the Government has imposed fines and even revoked 70 forestry concessions in the last two years. The regulations specify that only trees larger than 19.7 inches in diameter may be logged; that the the average concessionaire who holds 864,500 acres may log only 24,700 acres a year, meaning each block is cut only once every 35 years; that concessionaires must have nurseries and reforest. Aerial photography of forest land is obligatory, and new forestry police are being hired and trained. In a country as large and diverse as this one, with more than 13,700 islands and a land mass that is more than 70 percent forested, enforcement is a major headache. With 178 million people (65 percent of them under 35 years old), a gross domestic product that calculates to $450 per person and a heavy foreign-currency debt, striking a balance between development and preservation is particularly difficult, especially with 2.3 million young people seeking jobs every year in a country where underemployment is already a severe problem. Sense of Unfairness Indonesian officials, newly forthcoming about their problems, say they feel a strong sense of unfairness in the Western world's lecturing to them about the rain forest while providing little help to preserve it. They stress nonetheless that Indonesia cannot be lumped together with Brazil or Malaysia, and Western diplomats in Jakarta agree. In interviews in Jakarta, Hasjrul Hararap, the Minister of Forestry, and Emil Salim, the State Minister of Population and the Environment, said that 121 million acres have been protected as primary forest and national parkland, that 158 million acres have been set aside | Indonesia Takes Steps to Protect Rain Forests |
286189_3 | function effectively at work, a situation he described as ''a cancer eating away at the American economy.'' Some companies, worried about anemic productivity at home and fiercer competition abroad, are shifting locales just to find larger pools of qualified entry level workers. Some are moving divisions overseas. The problem, experts say, will not wither away. Motorola officials expect to keep increasing the educational levels of the company's workers just to keep up with changing technology, a trend Ms. Hooker compared to walking up a down escalator just to stay in place. Almost one in every four jobs now requires a college degree. Banks have replaced tellers with cash dispensing machines, but the new generation of tellers must be able to process loan applications. Moreover, companies eager to energize lackadaisical workers are giving them greater decision-making authority and responsibility. The new duties require workers to reason, to follow written instructions and to articulate their thoughts to teams of co-workers. ''I believe companies are going to have to shoulder a lot of the burden of correcting adult illiteracy because that's where the adults are during the day, not at home,'' Mr. Gerstner of RJR Nabisco said in a recent interview. Educators Are Responding For the most part, the education community is not shrugging off the criticism. In early September, the Teachers College Institute on Education and the Economy brought business leaders and educators together for three days on Cape Cod. P. Michael Timpane, Teachers College president, opened the conference by warning that the shortage of qualified workers ''strikes at the sinews of our nation'' and ''affects our hopes for social integration.'' Although he did not say so directly, a study by the college shows that black and Hispanic people are heavily represented in precisely those occupations that are lagging in growth. Some school systems are taking dramatic steps to demonstrate their responsibility to business. The Plymouth-Carver district in Massachusetts has decided to ''warranty'' the skills of its high school graduates for three years. Bernard Sidman, the superintendent, said that if an employer reports that a graduate cannot make change at a cash register, for example, the district will enroll the student in ''evening classes for retooling'' free of charge. Business and education are increasingly linking their worlds. Seven years ago, the American Express Company confronted hiring pools of high-school graduates whose abilities were mediocre and who often did not understand the need | Companies Step In Where the Schools Fail |
286156_2 | Poland should have her place.'' The Polish Foreign Minister announced that the coalition Government of Communists, Solidarity supporters and independents, will become the second East European country to accept an international human rights agreement under which individual citizens of countries adhering to it may bring complaints about human rights abuses by their governments for examination by the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Hungary is the only other East European nation to accept the agreement, the optional protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In another speech to the General Assembly today, President Jose Sarney of Brazil said that his country had taken significant measures to protect the Amazon rain forest and was willing to be the host of the next United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in 1992. Mr. Sarney said that Brazil favored international cooperation on the environment but added that ''we will never be prepared to accept restrictions upon our sovereignty.'' He asserted that industrial nations ''bear the greatest responsibility'' for the pollution of the environment and that developing countries would not assume alone the burden of insuring the world's ecological balance. 'Green Helmets' Foreign Minister Alois Mock of Austria expressed support for ''sustainable development,'' the view that economic progress must not cause irreparable damage to the environment. This concept, espoused by Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway, was the basis of the 1987 World Commission on the Environment and Development. Mr. Mock also suggested the drafting of an international environment charter, which would set guidelines for international action. ''Just as we have become accustomed to the Blue Helmets, which have been so successful in peacekeeping operations in areas of crisis, we may express the firm hope that in the foreseeable future, 'U.N. Green Helmets' may engage in the protection of the environment,'' he said. President Carlos Andres Perez of Venezuela also emphasized the need for industrial and developing countries to jointly approach environmental and development problems. The two sides must reconcile their views, he said, ''so as to preserve our environmental heritage without impairing our common right to develop.'' The Venezuelan leader referred to recent events in Colombia, noting that the United States ''came to the forefront in offering solidarity and material aid'' to a government besieged by drug traffickers. But, he added, ''Wouldn't it have been better to strengthen the Colombian economy, by supporting, for example, the international coffee agreement?'' | Polish Foreign Minister Pledges No Withdrawal From Warsaw Pact |
270995_4 | Robert E. Tiller, the director of the restarting project, and other Energy Department officials in South Carolina and in Washington say they are not authorized to discuss it with reporters. Westinghouse executives and engineers also say they are not authorized to discuss it. In a letter accompanying the plan, James S. Moore, president of Westinghouse Savannah River, said the delay and extra cost for repairs were a result of initial difficulties engineers had in understanding the ''magnitude of the changes'' needed to make the reactors safe. ''The current plan and schedule reflects a better understanding of the reality of the operation of Savannah River as it currently exists,'' said Mr. Moore. From November 1988 until it took over the plant's management on April 1 from E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Westinghouse engineers studied every facet of the plant's operation, the condition of equipment, mechanical flaws and the extent of repairs needed. The gravest problem Westinghouse has encountered has been the complacent attitude of the men and women who run the reactors, the report said. Westinghouse's conclusion about the attitudes that have existed at the plant for decades reflected similar conclusions reached in 1987 by a panel from the National Academy Sciences and by a group of experts from the Department of Energy in 1981. The plan said: ''Based on the issues in the reviews, Westinghouse Savannah River Company concluded that the existing reactor program problems are driven by a fundamental issue: 'The operating practices, management systems, training programs, and commitment to upgrading plant hardware have not kept pace with the practices, programs, and lessons learned in the commercial nuclear power industry, particularly since the Three Mile Island incident,' '' The restarting plan expands on an earlier document prepared by the Department of Energy and Du Pont last November. That plan was rejected as inadequate by the Advisory Committee on Nuclear Facility Safety, the department's principal scientific advisory committee. Before the first of the three 35-year-old reactors that are still operable at the plant is restarted, 2,700 separate tasks are to be completed, according to the plan. All of the plant's mechanical systems are to be inspected and many of them upgraded, overhauled or built anew. New safety equipment is being installed, including a surveillance system designed to detect leaks in cooling pipes. The pipes have been prone to cracking, a flaw that is one reason the reactors | Restarting Weapons Reactors To Cost 4 Times the Estimate |
263378_0 | LEAD: The tanker that spilled 420,000 gallons of oil into Narragansett Bay last month after hitting a reef off the Rhode Island coast was made in Greece, registered in Liberia, insured by a Bermuda-based group managed from London and owned by a Greek shipping magnate. The tanker that spilled 420,000 gallons of oil into Narragansett Bay last month after hitting a reef off the Rhode Island coast was made in Greece, registered in Liberia, insured by a Bermuda-based group managed from London and owned by a Greek shipping magnate. Such are the far-flung connections of the World Prodigy, according to Lloyd's Register and maritime insurers. And the Greek tanker is typical of the international shipping industry, a freewheeling arena subject to national laws and supranational standards, but mainly governed by market forces. The highly competitive shipping business is only recently showing signs of coming out of a deep 15-year recession, and shipowners scour the globe for the most efficient, lowest-cost method of operation. The three oil spills in American waters during a 12-hour span that began on June 23 have clearly heightened concerns about the safety standards of oil-carrying tankers. The spills came just three months after the Exxon Valdez leaked 11 million gallons of crude oil off the Alaskan coast, an accident that one industry executive described as ''our Three Mile Island.'' Indeed, the recent rash of tanker mishaps underlines the environmental and economic risks of transporting huge quantities of crude oil on the high seas. And the issue that will increasingly be examined by shippers and national governments is whether the current blend of market forces and regulatory oversight is sufficient to protect the environment. The latest incidents will also strengthen the case of critics who have long argued that international shipowners have too often undermined maritime safety in the pursuit of cost-cutting shortcuts, ranging from keeping aging tanker fleets in service to registering ships in Liberia, Panama and other regulatory havens that permit unlimited use of low-cost labor from third world nations. To be sure, the three accidents appear to have been caused by lapses of individual ship captains, rather than by aged vessels or by companies known as slipshod operators. The Greek tanker, built in 1986, hit a reef , spilling about 420,000 gallons of oil after going off course. In Texas, a barge leaked about 250,000 gallons of oil when it collided with a cargo | Tanker in Big Spill Typifies Freewheeling Industry |
263378_5 | shipping analyst for County NatWest Securities Ltd. in London. The classic way to cut operating costs in the tanker industry is to register the ship in an offshore nation with few regulatory controls, like Liberia or Panama. These ''flags of convenience'' allow shipowners to sidestep national rules that mandate the use of domestic crews, with obvious benefits. The basic monthly wage for seamen affiliated with the International Transport Workers' Federation, which includes unions mainly in developing nations, is $821 a month. By contrast, the going rate for Filipino seamen is $276 a month, for Bangladesh seamen $140 a month, and for Chinese seamen $50 a month, according to Lloyd's Shipping Economist, a monthly magazine. Union groups have long criticized the use of flags of convenience as a union-busting ploy that threatens maritime safety. Port workers in Australia and some other countries even refuse to dock ships that fly flags of convenience. (Shipowners have deflected that problem, however, by establishing dual registry. An example is the World Prodigy, registered in both Liberia and Greece, enabling it to fly the Greek flag.) Doubts of Experts Yet shipping experts doubt that tankers with flags of convenience are necessarily more accident-prone. ''People tend to think that these flags of convenience are a bad thing,'' said Peter Gunton, editor of Lloyd's Ship Manager, a monthly magazine. ''But how the ship is operated is pretty much up to the operator.'' The same principle applies to the current system of international ground rules for shipping. The London-based International Maritime Organization, an agency of the United Nations, establishes standards for the design, construction and manning of ships and the training of seamen. ''We set the standards, but the implementation of those standards is up to the member nations,'' said Captain Tee Mitropolis, an I.M.O. official. INTERNATIONAL REPORT Correction: July 5, 1989, Wednesday, Late Edition - Final July 11, 1989, Tuesday, Late Edition - Final A front-page picture caption on Monday about the departure of the oil tanker World Prodigy from Newport, R.I., incorrectly described the light tower shown. It marks the pilot station, not the shallows where the ship ran aground on June 23. The caption also misidentified the tower. It is the Brenton Point light. An article in Business Day on July 3 about international shipping misstated the registry of the tanker World Prodigy. It is registered in Greece and owned by a company incorporated in Liberia. | Tanker in Big Spill Typifies Freewheeling Industry |
263278_0 | LEAD: To the Editor: To the Editor: Your June 17 news story on the Castro regime's drug arrests in Cuba of a vice minister and other officials missed a key point: the opportunity these actions provide for the State Department to work toward regional antidrug cooperation including Cuba. The Castro regime's arrest of officials in the Government on drug-related charges must be seen as a positive step showing a desire to stop drug trafficking. The United States State Department issued a statement welcoming Cuban efforts to combat narcotics trafficking and expressing the hope that the Cuban Government will follow through with this investigation and prosecution to the fullest extent possible. Of course I join in this hope, but I also encourage the State Department to take further advantage of the announcement by the Cuban Government to explore opportunities to depoliticize narcotics efforts with Cuba. Last December a 12-member Select Narcotics Committee delegation met with Fidel Castro in Havana. Mr. Castro told us then that Cuba wants very much to work internationally on narcotics control, and that cooperation with the United States will naturally flow from this involvement. Mr. Castro said he recognizes that the problem is shared by the region, and that it needs to be addressed regionally. He was receptive to keeping the lines of communication open with the United States and discussing various means of cooperation in narcotics matters. The State Department told us in December that there is no cooperation between Cuba and the U.S. on narcotics matters, either officially or unofficially. The State Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said the Cuban and U.S. enforcement agencies do not even share information on suspected drug shipments that may be occurring. We should utilize the recent Cuban announcement of arrests as an opportunity to seek broader anti-narcotics efforts by Cuba including regional and direct Cuba-U.S. cooperation in narcotics interdiction, extending Cuban-American cooperation from existing non-narcotics matters like emergency searches and rescues. It is drugs, not Communists, that are killing our kids, filling our hospital emergency rooms to the breaking point, and overwhelming our judicial system. We should work with all countries in fighting drugs, our real number one national security issue. CHARLES B. RANGEL, Chairman, House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control Washington, June 19, 1989 | U.S. and Cuba Should Cooperate to Stop Regional Drug Trafficking |
264657_2 | ordinations in the decade after World War II means that 42 percent of the church's active clergy is scheduled to retire before 1995. At the same time, the number preparing for the ministry has declined annually for five years. Similar predicaments confront the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The picture for rabbis, whether Reform, Conservative or Orthodox, is mixed. Rabbi Zola, whose Reform seminary has campuses in Cincinnati, New York City, Los Angeles and Jerusalem, said enrollment is steady but the needs are ''dramatically growing.'' The sentiment was echoed by spokesmen for the Conservative branch. Orthodox Judaism faces a serious shortage of rabbis to teach in its elementary and high schools, said Rabbi Robert S. Hirt, who heads the seminary at Yeshiva University in New York City. While Numbers Fall, The Ages Increase Complicating concerns about the quantity and quality of the next generation of clergy is the fact that today's seminarians are distinctly different from those of the recent past. In the mid-1960's, 95 percent of Protestant seminarians were male and their average age was 26. A quarter century later, the average age was up by almost 10 years and a third of those seeking ordination in mainline Protestant seminaries were women. In the same period the average age for Catholic seminarians increased by 5 years. Virtually all seminary educators agree that the first large groups of women to enter seminaries in the 1970's were unusually capable and highly motivated. Only the influx of women has kept the shortage of talented seminarians from being much graver, the educators said. By contrast, the increase in older students, pursuing the ministry as a second career, has provoked worries that seminaries may be attracting people unable to achieve success in secular careers. But Ellis L. Larsen, a professor of church administration at Wesley Theological Seminary in the District of Columbia, rejected this conclusion after studying a national sample of seminarians. Older Seminarians Bring Personal Experience He said that most older seminarians exhibited much the same motivation as the younger ones and an even greater degree of self-confidence. ''My own sense is that the second-career person brings a wealth of personal experience to the ministry and has already resolved a lot of personal issues,'' Mr. Larsen said. Religious leaders admit that it is difficult to define quality in an area like ministry, | SHORTAGE OF ENTRANTS TO THE CLERGY CAUSING ALARM FOR U.S. RELIGIONS |
264725_2 | Times on May 2 featured a report on the pack rampage. One comment was: ''There has been an extraordinary resurgence of violence since crack. Violence is up throughout the community, and the types of crimes that are committed are more violent. To be successful in the underground economy, you have to be ruthless and you have to be violent.'' A week later, on May 9, The Times reported on wolf pack behavior. ''Among the inner-city teenagers,'' the article said, ''group violence is described as springing less from boredom than from an almost ritualized code of behavior between adolescents 13 to 15 years old and their older brethren.'' There are no simple solutions but there are some hopeful intervention strategies that have shown some evidence of workability. 1. My son runs a home for juveniles in Connecticut and he uses a method called tough love. Group relationships begin with mutually agreed upon rules and regulations. When these are violated, peer pressure becomes a positive force rather than such anti-social behavior that took place in the Central Park wilding episodes. To belong to the group, you have to behave in a constructive and cooperative manner or you are out of the group. It is not a perfect solution. Some of those who must leave still need help. But the remaining youngsters learn that cooperating with each other is the way to survive. 2. Juvenile felons in some Florida experiments are being given a second chance at a work camp instead of prison. If they make it, they earn their release. The track record of recidivism at these camps is 75 percent better than any prison. The physical work is hard, the hours long and the lessons tough. But they learn to beat the mean streets and redirect their energies. 3. Congress is considering bills to revive a form of the draft for young people to enter public service, not just in the military, as a prerequisite for college financial aid. Instead of a loan you would earn paid education based upon some formula of service. Some may recall how the Civilian Conservation Corps saved many urban youth in the 30's and helped reforest our land and reduce land erosion. 4. A possible combination of some such methods would be a cost-effective route for America. Many abandoned military bases are falling apart and being dropped by the Defense Department. Yet, we are short | Curbing Violence Before Immunity Sets In |
264528_1 | in Pakistan. But while improvements in agriculture have left Indians statistically able to feed themselves, population remains a source of grave concern in a country where food is not evenly distributed, forests are being razed for firewood or furniture, and good drinking water is scarce. Indian experts say large families are fostered by low literacy, high infant mortality, inadequate health care and a dearth of sustained information and follow-up services. ''The illiterate peasant does not perceive the danger in numbers, in crossing the one billion mark,'' says India's leading demographer, Ashish Bose, who has done 30 years of field work in villages. ''One of the major failures in India has been the lack of communication between our planners and policy makers and the masses,'' Mr. Bose, head of the Population Research Center of Delhi University's Institute of Economic Growth, said in an interview. ''We do not know how to communicate with illiterate people.'' Ads and Sterilization Population growth and fertility rates leveled off during the 1970's, and today Indian women still have on average of four to five children. Almost all efforts have been concentrated in the hands of the central Government working through local health authorities, an approach that some experts now question because the country is so culturally diverse. Radio and television advertising and information from community health centers bring to all India the message that small families are healthier and happier. But this apparently has not been enough. In Rajasthan, with India's fastest-growing population, a survey found that 97 percent of women who refuse birth control were well informed on family planning programs. Sterilization accounts for at least 90 percent of the successes. Intrauterine devices are a distant second, and some pills and condoms are distributed. Many sterilizations are carried out in temporary ''camps'' where critics say unsanitary and impersonal conditions are a deterrent. Cash or other rewards are offered for being sterilized - up to $12.50 per person - but villagers say some people turn up several times to collect them, distorting the statistics. Successive Indian Governments have recognized the population problem since independence in 1947, when the population was 342 million. In 1966, family planning was given a department of its own within the Ministry of Health, a step some demographers say was a mistake, since it separated population control from the general Government overview of development. In the mid-1970's, the family-planning drive was endowed | Why India Is Still Failing To Stop Its Population Surge |
264579_2 | a Soviet Navy cruiser in the Black Sea, a venture intended to demonstrate the possibility of arms control at sea. Yevgeny P. Velikhov, a vice president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and organizer of the tour, said Mr. Gorbachev personally approved the visits. #2 American Physicists The American visitors included two physicists, two members of the House Armed Services Committee and an aide to the Senate Armed Services Committee. None of the Americans were specialists in lasers, and the excursion to the laser center was arranged at the last minute, leaving no opportunity for the group to consult experts before leaving the United States. Sary-Shagan has been an object of American interest since at least 1984, when the Pentagon first published a sketch based on satellite photographs of the compound. In 1985, the Defense and State Departments - in the midst of an aggressive campaign to justify President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative - published a booklet identifying this remote spot as the heart of an ''ominous'' laser weapons research and development program. ''The directed energy R & D site at Sary-Shagan proving ground included ground-based lasers that could be used in an antisatellite role today and possibly a ballistic missile defense role in the future,'' the document asserted. Extra Money for Pentagon Representative John M. Spratt Jr., Democrat of South Carolina and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said even then American intelligence experts had serious doubts about the menace of the laser center because they saw no evidence of a power large enough to produce the jolt required for laser weaponry. Mr. Spratt said they confined their doubts to classified briefings. ''It's incredible to think that the Pentagon S.D.I. folks probably got an extra $10 billion because of this place,'' said Frank Von Hippel, a Princeton University physicist who toured Sary Shagan today. In the last year or so, the American Star Wars program has been scaled back and the Pentagon now describes Sary Shagan less certainly as a place where the Soviets ''are believed to be developing several lasers for strategic applications.'' Defense Department interest has shifted to another reported Soviet laser installation near Dushanbe, the capital of Tadjikistan. Denial From Soviets Soviet officials here denied that lasers at Dushanbe have weapons potential, but they declined to describe the center there in detail. The officials also declined to discuss nonlaser activities at the vast proving | American Team Gets Close Look At Soviet Laser |
269901_1 | forced to work and to do miracles with respect to support coming from the socialist world,'' he said in the address in the farm center of Camaguey, 300 miles southeast of here, marking the 36th anniversary of the beginning of the Cuban revolution. When President Mikhail S. Gorbachev visited Cuba four months ago, there was widespread speculation that he had privately told Mr. Castro that the Soviet Union could no longer afford the $10 million a day in economic aid that it was providing Cuba. In public, Mr. Gorbachev said more efficiency was required throughout the Communist world. Both leaders insisted there were no plans for a formal reduction in Soviet aid to Cuba. But many diplomats here said it was likely that as Soviet-bloc industries became more independent and profit oriented, delivery of supplies to Cuba, which are heavily subsidized, would receive lower priorities and might arrive in smaller quantities. No reductions in Soviet-bloc aid have been announced, but Mr. Castro noted some delays in deliveries of materials in comments before the National Assembly last week. One construction project, he said, was not going to be finished on schedule because supplies had been slow in arriving from the Soviet Union. Joint Ventures Encouraged Mr. Castro also surprised many Western diplomats by referring in the Assembly to a Soviet-built steel mill 30 miles outside Havana as a ''white elephant'' and saying that flat roofs that had been put on some buildings here on the advice of Soviet technicians were inappropriate in a country with heavy rainfall. Mr. Castro has rejected the modernizing changes that are taking place in the Soviet Union and in the Eastern European countries and has portrayed himself as an embattled defender of such traditional Communist concepts as a centrally controlled economy and supremacy of the Communist Party. In a reversal of the trend in most other Communist countries, Mr. Castro has ended an experiment in which farmers, crafts people and some professionals were able to operate with a profit motive somewhat independently of state controls. At the same time, he eliminated most production incentives, telling Cubans that the joy of producing for the Communist state should be incentive enough. In a major exception, however, Mr. Castro is encouraging joint ventures between Cuba and foreign investors for the development of tourism, which he expects will be the country's leading source of foreign exchange within a few years. | Castro Begins to Talk of a Decline in Crucial Aid From Soviets |
268197_0 | LEAD: Ralph S. Daniels, an inventor in Shrewsbury, Mass., has patented a method for making fertilizer from the waste generated by refiners of vegetable oil. Ralph S. Daniels, an inventor in Shrewsbury, Mass., has patented a method for making fertilizer from the waste generated by refiners of vegetable oil. About 60 million tons of vegetable oil is refined annually, it is estimated, and three million tons of that is waste. Mr. Daniels said his method could turn much of that waste into marketable products. The purpose of refining vegetable oil is to remove unwanted gums that make the oils rancid. Mr. Daniels said these gums contain valuable plant nutrients, including phosphorus, but that chemicals added in current refining techniques make these nutrients unusable. The new method consists of substituting different chemicals during refining that actually enhance plant growth. In the first stage of purification, for example, refiners now mix crude oil with sodium hydroxide solution, which combines with the unwanted gums to form a ''soap stock.'' Sodium, however, is harmful to all plants. The new method substitutes potassium hydroxide; potassium is an important plant nutrient. Later, the soap stock is broken down by acid into mixtures of fat and water and neutralized with ammonia, which supplies nitrogen. The water mixture then contains most of the ingredients of fertilizer. In tests, the inventor said, rose bushes grown with the new fertilizer produced 15 percent more flowers than those not fertilized at all. Mr. Daniels received patent 4,836,843. | Patents; Vegetable Oil Waste Is Used for Fertilizer |
268017_1 | on news reports in The Times this week. Answers appear on page 48. 1. Despite appearances, these may be a cool smile and a warm frown. Explain. 2. George Bush's debut in the international economic arena differed significantly from the approach of Presidents who had attended the 14 previous economic summit conferences of the Group of Seven. Explain. 3. The Census Bureau agreed to conduct a second census next year, a random survey of 150,000 housing units. What is the reason? 4. The fundamental facts of nature show that one of the surest ways to ease the threat of global warming is also one of the simplest and cheapest. What is it and why is it effective? 5. A recent meeting between the United States and the Palestine Liberation Organization prompted many members of Congress who had favored such dialogues to support legislation restricting them. What was the reason? 6. Even before they set one foot on Antarctica, six adventurers who left Minneapolis for a seven-month trek across the frozen continent had scaled heights no explorer had reached before. What did they achieve? 7. The movement toward more legalized gambling took an unusual step as a result of an action in Oregon. What happened? 8. Candidates in New York City's mayoral campaign are in rare accord about an issue involving the criminal justice system. On what do they agree? 9. The United States has new official treasures - 25 movies. What are the circumstances? 10. Solidarity delegates to the new Polish Parliament wanted Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski to be elected President, but without having to vote for him themselves. How did they assure his victory? 11. Doctors offered advice on preventing measles in young people and heart attacks in older men. What did they recommend in each case? 12. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney assailed a decision by Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher. What was the decision and what was Mr. Cheney's objection? 13. Although President Bush set long-term goals for manned space missions at ceremonies commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, skepticism over his commitment to the ventures he outlined was expressed. What was the reason? 14. The National Football League took a major step toward capitalizing on the growing popularity of American sports around the world. What did the league do? 15. The President of Nairobi lit an unusual bonfire. What did he burn and why? | Saturday News Quiz |
264854_0 | LEAD: The killing of a rubber tapper in the Amazon rain forest last year has set off a stampede among film makers and book publishers in the United States, Europe and South America to be first with his life story. The killing of a rubber tapper in the Amazon rain forest last year has set off a stampede among film makers and book publishers in the United States, Europe and South America to be first with his life story. Francisco (Chico) Mendes Filho, the leader of the rubber tappers' union in the Brazilian state of Acre, was slain on Dec. 22 by a shotgun blast fired from ambush. The killing not only made him a worldwide symbol of resistance to the destruction of the rain forest but also created an industry among book publishers and movie makers, two businesses that often thrive on headlines. ''I have nine firm offers for the movie rights, four of them for well over $1 million,'' said Alan U. Schwartz, the lawyer for the Chico Mendes Foundation, a coalition of environmentalists, rubber tappers and family members in Acre. The foundation plans to sell the rights to the authorized life story of Mr. Mendes. The offers have been received from representatives of Robert Redford, Steven Spielberg, David Puttnam, Ted Turner, Warner Brothers Inc., the 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation and film companies in Britain and Italy. So far, it has not sold any rights, but that has not stopped the deluge of interest because the story of Mr. Mendes's slaying and his environmental efforts are in the public domain. Sizable Investment Compared with the amounts being dangled by the film companies, the six-figure advances for the books about Chico Mendes are relatively small. But they represent a sizable investment for books about a remote part of the world and about a man who was little known even in his own country until he was killed - presumably because he had thwarted landowners' efforts to burn down vast expanses of Amazonian rain forest for cattle pasture. Two landowners, a father and son, have been arrested in connection with the slaying. ''Maybe it's appropriate that the rain forest, in which there is such intense competition among species, should generate such competition among those who are trying to spread the message about its vital importance,'' said Alex Shoumatoff, who is writing one of the books, for Little, Brown & Company. | After Amazon Slaying, Deals Abound |
266535_2 | large percentage of his patients have been victims of family or gang-related violence or witnesses to it, putting them at risk for many psychological disturbances, including that of acting out of violent tendencies. Violence Affecting More Children Dr. Bell said he was especially concerned about the increasing number of inner-city children suffering from low self-esteem and the kind of post-traumatic stress syndrome seen in Vietnam veterans. The children have witnessed murders and violent attacks on their parents or friends, he said. ''If we're going to talk about health status, we have to understand it's influenced to a large degree by life style,'' Dr. Bell said. Dr. Bell is focusing now on the need to identify blacks who are victims of violence and to give them additional help. ''One out of three women who come into my mental health center has been raped,'' he said. ''Two hundred kids in Detroit each year witness a murder. One out of three children in the Chicago school system has witnessed a shooting or had a violent experience. In Los Angeles, 200 to 400 children a year witness a parent being killed.'' Dr. Frank E. Staggers, who today ended a one-year term as the association's president, cited Federal statistics and said cancer, diabetes, liver disease, substance abuse, infant mortality and now AIDS are the leading causes of deaths among blacks that can be ''directly attributed to racial and economic factors.'' 'Things Are Getting Worse' Blacks suffer fron higher rates of almost all cancers. Blacks men under 45 years old are 10 times more likely than whites to die of hypertension and have a 45 percent higher rate of lung cancer. The diabetes rate is 33 percent higher among blacks than whites. Blacks have twice the level of infant mortality. And although blacks are 13 percent of the population, they account for more than one-fourth of the diagnosed AIDS cases. ''Absolutely, things are getting worse,'' Dr. Staggers said. He said part of the association's goal is to change the behavior that resulted in those statistics, whether that behavior is linked with low self-esteem or simply miseducation about health issues. Dr. Staggers said the the association is working with other black organizations like the National Bar Association, the N.A.A.C.P. and the Urban League in grassroots education campaigns. Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a keynote speech Saturday | Doctors See Gap in Blacks' Health Having a Link to Low Self-Esteem |
266517_0 | LEAD: Following are key sections of the communique issued today by the Group of Seven major industrialized democracies: Following are key sections of the communique issued today by the Group of Seven major industrialized democracies: 1. We, the heads of state or government of seven major industrial nations and the president of the Commission of the European Communities, have met in Paris for the 15th annual Economic Summit. The Summit of the Arch initiates a new round of summits to succeed those begun at Rambouillet in 1975 and at Versailles in 1982. The round beginning in 1982 has seen one of the longest periods of sustained growth since the Second World War. These summits have permitted effective consultations, offered the opportunity to launch initiatives and to strengthen international cooperation. 2. This year's world economic situation presents three main challenges: * The choice and the implementation of measures needed to maintain balanced and sustained growth, counter inflation, create jobs and promote social justice. These measures should also facilitate the adjustment of external imbalances, promote international trade and investment, and improve the economic situation of developing countries. * The development and the further integration of developing countries into the world economy. Whilst there has been substantial progress in many developing countries, particularly those implementing sound economic policies, the debt burden and the persistence of poverty, often made worse by natural disasters affecting hundreds of millions of people, are problems of deep concern which we must continue to face in a spirit of solidarity. * The urgent need to safeguard the environment for future generations. Scientific studies have revealed the existence of serious threats to our environment such as the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, excessive emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases which could lead to future climate changes. Protecting the environment calls for a determined and concerted international response and for the early adoption, worldwide, of policies based on sustainable development. International Economic Situation 3. Growth has been sustained by focusing policies on improving the efficiency and flexibility of our economies and by strengthening our cooperative efforts and the coordination process. In the medium term, the current buoyant investment seen during this period should pave the way for an increased supply of goods and services and help reduce the dangers of inflation. The outlook is not, however, without risks. 4. Until now, the threat of inflation in many countries | Key Sections of the Paris Communique by the Group of Seven |
266517_13 | use of suitable substitute substances and technologies. . . . 40. We strongly advocate common efforts to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which threaten to induce climate change, endangering the environment and the economy. . . . 41. We agree that increasing energy efficiency could make a substantial contribution to these goals. We urge international organizations concerned to encourage measures, including economic measures, to improve energy conservation and, more broadly, efficiency in the use of energy. . . . We are committed to maintaining the highest safety standards for nuclear power plants and to strengthening international cooperation in safe operation of power plants and waste management, and we recognize that nuclear power also plays an important role in limiting output of greenhouse gases. 42. Deforestation also damages the atmosphere and must be reversed. We call for the adoption of sustainable forest management practices, with a view to preserving the scale of world forests. . . . 43. Preserving the tropical forests is an urgent need for the world as a whole. While recognizing the sovereign rights of developing countries to make use of their natural resources, we encourage, through a sustainable use of tropical forests, the protection of all the species therein and the traditional rights to land and other resources of local communities. We welcome the German initiative in this field as a basis for progress. To this end, we give strong support to rapid implementation of the Tropical Forest Action Plan which was adopted in 1986 in the framework of the Food and Agricultural Organization. . . . 45. The increasing complexity of the issues related to the protection of the atmosphere calls for innovative solutions. New instruments may be contemplated. We believe that the conclusion of a framework or umbrella convention on climate change to set out general principles or guidelines is urgently required. . . . We welcome the work under way by the United Nations Environment Program, in cooperation with the World Meteorological Organization, drawing on the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the results of other international meetings. . . . 46. We condemn indiscriminate use of oceans as dumping grounds for polluting waste. . . . 47. We are committed to insuring full implementation of existing rules for the environment. In this respect, we note with interest the initiative of the Italian Government to host in | Key Sections of the Paris Communique by the Group of Seven |
266537_0 | LEAD: In the waning days of the construction of nuclear power plants in the United States, supporters of nuclear energy say that if a new generation of plants is ever ordered, the Limerick 2 plant here could be a model for pricing and planning. In the waning days of the construction of nuclear power plants in the United States, supporters of nuclear energy say that if a new generation of plants is ever ordered, the Limerick 2 plant here could be a model for pricing and planning. As construction here on the Susquehanna River 30 miles northwest of Philadelphia comes to an end, the work is ahead of schedule and under budget. For the contractor, Bechtel Group Inc., that means a bonus, under an arrangement that could become standard for such projects. If the project had been over budget, Bechtel would have had to absorb some of the extra costs with the plant's owner, the Philadelphia Electric Company. The project was aided by union workers' agreeing to concessions that increased productivity. By contrast, at almost all the 110 reactors now in operation, contractors and workers had little incentive to hold down costs; the risk of cost overruns lay almost entirely with the utility or its customers, and workers believed that their jobs were safe no matter how inefficiently the job was done. Construction went quickly and efficiently because it was planned to an unusual degree, the utility says; on most projects, work begins when the design is only 25 percent complete. A Near-Cancellation The innovations were not completely voluntary, coming after the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission, in the face of rising construction costs, almost killed the project in 1982. But even if Limerick 2 is now considered a success, skeptics of nuclear power question whether there will ever be a next generation of American plants. No order has been placed for a nuclear plant in a decade, and all the plants ordered after 1973 were canceled. With Limerick 2 in the testing stage, the only plants still under construction are a twin-reactor complex in Texas and one reactor in Tennessee. Experts agree that the old ways of building nuclear plants are dead. Any new plants will have to be of better design than existing ones, with a greater ability to withstand mechanical failures and human error. They will also have to be able to operate more reliably, with lower maintenance | Building Reactors the New Way |
269064_0 | LEAD: THE chemical industry is challenging the way the Federal Government classifies substances as a potential cause of cancer in humans. THE chemical industry is challenging the way the Federal Government classifies substances as a potential cause of cancer in humans. Industry associations and companies contend in a lawsuit that the Government's practice of using tests on animals as evidence that a chemical can cause cancer is inadequate and outdated. But some environmental health experts contend that the industry is trying to interfere with the scientific process. The industry's lawsuit has blocked publication of an annual report on cancer-causing agents, or carcinogens, by the Department of Health and Human Service. Ostensibly, the industry is reacting to the report's listing of a chemical used in mothballs and air fresheners as a potential cancer-causing substance. The suit contends that the chemical, paradichlorobenzene, should not be listed solely on the basis of tests on laboratory animals; other evidence should be taken into account, too, it says. Studies on Humans Lacking But ultimately, industry officials concede, the lawsuit is intended as a broad challenge to the practice of using tests on animals as evidence that a chemical can threaten humans. They said that more sophisticated methods have been developed and that the Government is unduly alarming people, while the industry is losing sales unnecessarily. Regulatory agencies, scientists, public health officials and citizens' groups rely on animal tests to determine whether certain substances could cause cancer or other chronic disease in humans, since they lack studies of the effect of most chemicals on human populations. Scientists use laboratory animals for testing the potential health effects of chemicals in humans by injecting or feeding the animals large amounts of the chemical and studying the effects. The results are then extrapolated to adjust for the body size of humans and the levels of human exposure to the chemical. New Techniques Developed In recent years, scientists have developed new techniques for looking at the formation of cancer in humans, looking at mechanisms by which a chemical affects the body, what paths it follows and other specific chemical and physical reactions. Scientists still widely rely on animal tests, however, as the first indicator of whether or not a chemical has the potential of causing cancer or other disease. The chemical industry's suit says additional information about the way paradichlorobenzene works on rats should have been considered by the National | Industry Fights Use of Animal Tests to Assess Cancer Risk |
269079_1 | with the fragmentary measurements from existing satellites and ground stations. Using a wide array of remote-sensing instruments, more than half of them of new and more advanced design, the system is intended to gather detailed information and measurements about the Earth's climate and weather, its land, its crops, its ocean temperatures and currents, its forests and all its other biota. Scores of other satellites, mainly those that observe the weather and many whose main purpose has been to develop the technology of observation and measurement, were the system's precursors. If the effort succeeds, scientists say, it will enable them to give much more precise and confident answers about over-arching environmental concerns like the rate and severity of global warming, thereby aiding policy makers. It is being undertaken in cooperation with the European Space Agency and with Japan, each of which is to place in orbit a major piece of the system. The enterprise is seen by some scientists as the practical embodiment of the vision of the planet as a lovely, unified sphere that thrilled people everywhere, and changed their perceptions, when astronauts bound for the Moon first beamed it back from space 20 years ago. ''I consider the program very exciting and very worthwhile,'' said Thomas M. Donahue, a professor of planetary science and physics at the University of Michigan. ''It's something we must do. The nation and the world must undertake these studies, otherwise the planet is in serious trouble.'' As chairman of the space board of the National Research Council, Dr. Donahue headed a study of the nation's space program that last year strongly recommended Mission to Planet Earth. The program ''has the potential to revolutionize global studies,'' said James Hansen, a climatologist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Institute of Space Studies in New York, who has been deeply involved in the planning of Mission to Planet Earth and who would be one of its principal scientific investigators. ''This is without doubt the largest science program the agency has ever undertaken,'' said Shelby Tilford, the director of NASA's earth science and applications division, under which the satellite program falls. ''We believe it has the potential for more near-term meaning than any other science program we might ever undertake.'' But Dr. Donahue expressed misgivings that are shared by other scientists. His main criticism, which he considers ''fairly serious,'' is that the major orbiting platforms of | NASA Plans a 'Mission to Planet Earth' |
263652_1 | rate of deforestation it is projected that several countries, including El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, will have destroyed all their forests in 30 years. ''The study indicates that deforestation is a bad investment,'' said Charles M. Peters of the Institute of Economic Botany at the New York Botanical Garden, who headed the three-year study. ''People who have wanted to save the forest using environmental arguments have not been very persuasive because many of these nations have a large debt,'' he said. ''But these findings offer a very powerful argument for forest conservation.'' Brazilian Embassy officials in Washington said that while the study was being reviewed by scientists, the Brazilian goverment ''does not find the information surprising.'' ''Along with other reports like this and with work being done by our government, the study is likely to have an impact,'' said Vera Machado, counselor for environmental issues in the Brazilian Embassy. ''We expect that the deforestation will be decreasing.'' South American governments, along with timber companies, miners and cattle ranchers, have been criticized by environmentalists, who contend that they have pursued large-scale clearing of forests to create farmland or sell timber without regard for the environmental impact. Brazil, for example, offered economic incentives to private entrepreneurs from 1965 to 1983 to invest in cattle ranching, a policy environmentalists say promoted the destruction of thousands of acres of woodlands. Link to Disasters Seen Amazon forests are regarded as among the richest and most diverse in the world and the source of hundreds of varieties of edible fruits, oils, as well as virtually untapped medicinal products, The clearing of tropical forests contributes to the warming of the atmosphere, and ultimately to the greenhouse effect, because the giant trees contain large amounts of carbon that are released when they rot or burn. In addition, the destruction of forests in many countries has led to several disasters, says World Watch Institute, an environmental research group in Washington. Rainfall runoff, accelerated by deforestation, has triggered widespead flooding in Bangladesh, India, the Sudan, Thailand and elsewhere. The new study showed that 12 products, primarily edible fruits and latex, found in one hectare, about 2.5 acres, of forest at the village of Mishana, in northeastern Peru near the Brazilian border, are worth $6,330 if sold in local markets over 50 years, with the cost of harvesting deducted from the market price. The study also showed | Rain Forest Worth More if Uncut, Study Says |
267718_6 | half the time it would if it used gasoline. A much bigger fuel tank could alleviate the problem, but there is not much unused space in today's cars. Engineers have developed special plastic that resists methanol's corrosiveness and can be molded to take advantage of unused nooks and crannies. But eventually, fuel tanks might need to grow larger, reducing trunk or interior space. While the burning of methanol is much cleaner, it produces other harmful substances, like formaldehyde. And methanol must be mixed with gasoline to create a fuel that vaporizes easily enough to start an engine on a winter morning in cold regions. Methanol is currently 20 to 70 percent more expensive per mile driven, according to the environmental group Inform. But the price could drop if the fuel were produced in large volume. Detroit is confident it can produce the 500,000 alternative-fuel cars a year that the Government has mentioned as a tentative target for 1995, but it worries about consumer acceptance of them. ''If they'd pass a law saying people had to buy methanol cars, that would be a neat deal,'' said Donald Runkle, head of advanced engineering at General Motors. But that is not likely. ''The public may be willing to absorb a couple hundred dollars extra in price,'' said Richard Wilson, director of the E.P.A.'s office of mobile sources, when asked about flexible-fuel cars. ''If not, the industry will have to work out promotional pricing to get the right sales mix.'' Air-Conditioners Air-conditioners that operate without chlorofluorocarbons are expected to be larger and heavier, forcing Detroit to redesign some auto models to make space for them and reducing fuel efficiency. The Bush proposals do not address the problem of chlorofluorocarbons, but the United States and other nations agreed in Montreal in 1987 to cut the use of of the chemicals in half by 1998. Vermont has passed a law banning the substance in cars by 1993. One alternative refrigerant for air-conditioners is tetrafluoroethane, commonly known as 134A and produced by E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Company and other chemical companies, but not yet in quantities that the car makers need. Du Pont has said it will step up production next year. Scientists are also designing new lubricants that will be needed before 134A can be used effectively. G.M. said it hoped to be able to equip cars with 134A-based air-conditioners in the mid-1990's. | Auto Makers' Plea on Pollution |
267098_3 | was stronger, but the goods not delivered until May when the transaction is counted in the official trade numbers. Strikes Overseas In addition, some economists noted that the increase could result from a catch-up in May from the April dock strikes in Japan and Italy. The strikes temporarily delayed shipments by exporters. Virtually every category of American imports was higher, except autos. The slump in demand for cars, economists said, is affecting both imported as well as domestic models. Reflecting both higher prices as well increased demand, petroleum imports jumped 17 percent, to $4.75 billion in May. The average price was $18.40 a barrel in May, 57 cents more than in April and $2.58 more than in January. Imports of manufactured goods rose by 6 percent, to $32.4 billion, paced by industrial and capital goods, like power generating machinery, electrical machinery, automated data processing equipment and office machinery. Benefit in the Future But Deborah Johnson, senior economist and vice president of Prudential-Bache Securities Inc., noted that such imports could be beneficial by making the economy more competitive down the road. The United States is importing more capital than consumer goods. Exports also declined broadly. Consumer goods fell by 5.7 percent, capital goods 3.2 percent and autos 3.3 percent. The only sectors to gain were food, feed and beverages and the category ''other.'' The geographical breakdown showed deterioration in the trading accounts with most major partners. The United States continued to post its largest trade deficit with Japan. The shortfall rose to $4.28 billion in May, from $3.89 billion in April. With Western Europe, the United States swung to a deficit of $78.3 million in May, from a surplus of $231.5 million in April. While the deficit with Korea shrank to $503.0 million in May, from $544.6 million, it rose with Taiwan, to $1,087.1 billion from $840.4 million. With all developing countries the deficit widened to $5.0 billion from $3.63 billion. The deficit with Canada jumped to $739.3 million from $174.8 million. Economists noted that while the dollar rose over the last 18 months, many foreign governments, including Japan, West Germany and Canada, have been tightening their monetary policy to fight inflation and domestic demand problems. Both developments act as a brake on American exports. Exports are growing at less than half of last year's rate, said Howard Lewis, vice president international and economic affairs of the National Association of Manufacturers. | Import Rise Worsens Trade Gap |
267115_1 | of 0's and 1's and transmit them as a pattern of radio pulses. At the receiving end, the conversation will be reconstructed. Today's analog systems transmit calls on electromagnetic radio waves that in essence mimic the wave pattern of the voice. The digital technology is expected to provide three times the capacity of the current analog system at a lower cost per call. Digital equipment will also make it more difficult to illegally listen to cellular phone conversations. And it will allow providers of cellular service to offer mobile phone customers both clearer calls and a wide variety of new services, including facsimile and data transmissions and access to data bases. But installing the digital networks will cost the cellular phone companies $4 billion or more. For many of them, the new investments will be needed before the old systems have generated enough profits to pay for themselves. More than $3.2 billion has been invested in analog cellular systems. The cellular companies will also face the managerial and financial burden of operating both types of systems until all consumers have switched to digital services. Industry sources say it will be hard to induce customers to switch in the early years because digital phones are likely to be more expensive until mass production brings their cost down. The most dramatic growth in cellular subscribers is taking place in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Washington and other metropolitan areas with large populations and where residents spend a great deal of time in their cars. Last year, the number of subscribers increased by 67 percent, to 2.06 million, from 1.23 million in 1987, and industry analysts predict there will be more than 10 million subscribers by 1993. ''By 1991, the major cities will have so many cellular subscribers that we won't be able to engineer analog systems to maintain the current level of quality,'' said Robert W. Maher, president of the Cellular Telephone Industry Association, which is based in Washington. ''We will have no choice but to switch our systems to digital technology, otherwise some customers won't be able to get on the network, and that will have a negative impact on our growth,'' Mr. Maher added. The cellular phone industry has a so-called blocking rate standard of 2 percent, which means that at least 98 calls out of 100 are connected. In some cities, like New York and Los Angeles, which | Meeting Mobile Phone Demand |
265753_2 | at the trial of General Ochoa and 13 co-defendants provided abundant new evidence to support longstanding American charges that Cuban officials were involved in drug smuggling. Mr. Castro had long denied such charges. Although many experts on Cuba say they believe the court-martial was a show trial staged for political reasons, the testimony supports American assertions that the Cuban authorities allowed the island to be used as a transit point for cocaine shipped to the United States from Colombia. The evidence dovetails with charges made over the last seven years in United States grand jury indictments. The indictments charge that a Cuban admiral was involved in drug trafficking, that smugglers' vessels were escorted out of Cuban waters by the Cuban Coast Guard and that Mr. Castro mediated a dispute between Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega of Panama and the Medellin drug cartel in Colombia. Ten of the 14 Cubans convicted by the military tribunal were sentenced to prison for terms ranging from 10 to 30 years. Those executed at dawn today, besides General Ochoa, were Col. Antonio de la Guardia Font, Maj. Amado Padron Trujillo and Capt. Jorge Martinez Valdes, the Cuban radio reported. 'To Protect Castro's Image' Ernesto Betancourt, director of Radio Marti, the United States Government station that broadcasts to Cuba, said a major purpose of the trial was ''to protect Castro's image from forthcoming revelations in U.S. courts about Castro-Medellin cartel links.'' Mr. Castro insisted that the defendants were renegades acting without authorization from his Government. But evidence presented at the trial suggests that his brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro, may have been aware of the drug trafficking. It is difficult for the Government to dissociate itself from the scandal because General Ochoa and his colleagues said their activities had generated hard currency for the Cuban treasury and had been authorized by the Castro brothers. Cuban military officers testified that they sold diamonds, fish, sugar, rum and electronic equipment on the black market in Angola to obtain hard currency for Cuba. One witness, Lieut. Col. Arnaldo Morejon Plat, testified that General Ochoa had told him that such sales ''had been authorized'' by the Castro brothers. Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute of Inter-American Studies at the University of Miami, in Florida, said there were apparently two drug-smuggling operations - ''an official operation sanctioned by Fidel and Raul Castro and a second operation by Ochoa and small independent mafiosi.'' | Cuban General and Three Others Executed for Sending Drugs to U.S. |
265730_2 | celebrity.'' Although the heart association has not announced which categories of processed foods it will review first, it has already received hundreds of inquiries from manufacturers, said Tim Elsner, a spokesman for the association. The first endorsements will probably be made in early 1990, he said. ''Our studies have shown that there is confusion in the marketplace and that the consumer has asked us for guidance,'' Mr. Elsner said. But John R. Cady, president of the National Food Processors Association, said he was concerned that the program would foster a misleading distinction between ''good foods'' and ''bad foods.'' Another potential problem, he said, is ''a proliferation of less reliable programs.'' Bonnie Liebman, director of nutrition for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said she was concerned that the heart association's program would be too lenient. The prospect of such criticism is one reason that most organizations have shied away from issuing product endorsements, said John Mack Carter, the editor of Good Housekeeping magazine, which has run a seal of approval program for 80 years. ''I'm surprised that an association like the A.H.A. would take on the liability and open themselves up to the inevitable criticism by those who see themselves as misused,'' he said. The key to the continued success of the Good Housekeeping seal, Mr. Carter said, is that the magazine, which is owned by the Hearst Corporation, promises to replace or provide a refund for a defective product it had approved. ''It is still as powerful a mark today as it ever has been,'' he said. Other organizations that issue seals of approval include the National Center for Cardiac Information, which has reviewed 100 products since last November but not yet made any endorsements; the American College of Nutrition, which gave its endorsement to Procter & Gamble's Puritan Oil in 1988, and the American Medical Women's Association, which endorsed Procter & Gamble's Citrus Hill Plus Calcium orange juice in 1986. William F. Dobson, a spokesman for Procter & Gamble, said the company actively seeks such endorsements. ''We think that these kind of acceptance programs are important because they provide third-party support for the research and the resulting claims that we make for our products,'' he said. Ms. Doyle of the Consumer Network noted, however, that the company seemed to have only limited success with a marketing campaign for Citrus Hill that emphasized the medical association's endorsement. | THE MEDIA BUSINESS: Advertising; The Value Of a Seal Of Approval |
265712_0 | LEAD: Two years ago, the leaders of the Group of Seven nations offered invaluable support to the Central American peace initiative. Today I ask them to devote their attention to another set of urgent problems: the threat of tropical deforestation and the need to redirect development strategies toward a sustainable course. Two years ago, the leaders of the Group of Seven nations offered invaluable support to the Central American peace initiative. Today I ask them to devote their attention to another set of urgent problems: the threat of tropical deforestation and the need to redirect development strategies toward a sustainable course. The destruction of tropical forests, home to nearly two-thirds of all existing animal and plant species, is proceeding at an unprecedented rate. We have, however, a unique opportunity to reverse this trend. Appropriate economic incentives to tropical developing countries could support a biomass buildup on a global scale. Economic pressures are forcing rural populations into destructive short-term exploitation of resources, such as forests, wetlands and grasslands. It is possible to reverse this trend by an active fostering of biomass buildup which will create new development opportunities. Costa Rica has embarked, with considerable economic and social sacrifice, on a number of initiatives to protect our unique natural environment. We are encouraging reforestation by means of innovative mechanisms, such as debt for nature swaps, and we are promoting integrated management of protected areas with special consideration of the human populations in these areas. With grants from the Governments of the Netherlands and Sweden, as well as the cooperation of many private organizations, Costa Rica has purchased nearly five percent of its commercial debt and converted it to local currency. Converted debt is then used to fund maintenance and buildup of our biomass resources, carried out in conjunction with peasant organizations. These experiences have taught us that the destructive cycle in which most developing countries are trapped can be broken. By reducing economic pressures and creating appropriate incentives, developing countries can embark on a path of sustainable development without imposing undue hardship on the poorest sectors of the population. However, as long as terms of trade for the developing world keep deteriorating and developing nations continue to be net exporters of capital, the majority of people in the developing world will continue to spiral downward into misery and poverty. One example of unfair and unproductive terms of trade are the agricultural subsidies | For the Globe's Sake, Debt Relief |
265703_0 | LEAD: The earth's capacity to support a rapidly expanding population is declining ominously. So the $2.25 billion Japan is offering the third world for environmental purposes is too little and dangerously near too late. The earth's capacity to support a rapidly expanding population is declining ominously. So the $2.25 billion Japan is offering the third world for environmental purposes is too little and dangerously near too late. Nevertheless, Japan's proposal might point the Paris economic summit meeting in the right direction -toward environmental and population dangers that threaten humanity's well-being more certainly than nuclear war. The rest of the more than $40 billion Japan offers in grants and loans to aid economic development, for example, will be largely wasted if current population trends continue. President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt made the point succinctly to Alan Riding of The New York Times: ''We [ Egyptians ] increase by about one million and a half every year. It threatens to choke all our efforts in all fields and quashes all hope of growth, production and development.'' Egypt's plight is an old but still shocking story in the third world. Mr. Riding detailed it: a 2.7 percent annual population growth rate, a declining death rate, 53 million people now dependent on the 4 percent of Egyptian land that's arable. If Mr. Mubarak's projection is correct, that will be something like 70 million people by the end of this century (only 11 years from now); and the amount of Egyptian land available to produce food will have declined further as an expanding populace absorbs it for dwellings and businesses. Egypt's problem, except for its restricted strip of productive land along the Nile, is by no means the world's worst. Over all, the global population - which doubled from 2.5 to 5 billion between 1950 and 1987 - is expected to expand by another billion mouths to be fed by the year 2000. It took more than a century for world population to double from 1.25 billion to 2.5 billion in 1950. So the extraordinary ''momentum of population growth'' achieved in recent decades ''ensures that human numbers cannot start to decline as a result of reduced fertility in less than half a century'' from now. That's the conclusion of ''Global Change and Carrying Capacity,'' a paper by Paul R. Ehrlich and associates of the Stanford University Institute for Population and Resource Studies. The combination of | Reality at the Summit |
264188_0 | LEAD: The Federal Aviation Administration issued a rule today to require airlines to install bomb detectors capable of spotting plastic explosives in checked baggage at 40 American and foreign airports. The Federal Aviation Administration issued a rule today to require airlines to install bomb detectors capable of spotting plastic explosives in checked baggage at 40 American and foreign airports. The agency did not list the airports where units are to be required, although it said the first one was expected to be in service at Kennedy International Airport by the end of the month. Transporation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner said in April that he would issue such a rule in response to the December 21 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland that killed 270 people. Investigators concluded the bomb was a plastic explosive hidden in luggage, although they have not determined who planted it. The rule is scheduled to go into effect at the end of August, after a period for public comment on it, the agency said. | Government Issues Directive For Airport Bomb Detectors |
264171_2 | is probably the least offensive jail in the Middle East and that the Israelis treat Arab prisoners much better than Arab jailers treat Arabs - to say nothing of how they might treat thousands of Jews jailed for rebelling against Arab rule. These comparisons do not excuse any mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners by Israelis, whose claim for world support rests on being better than the neighbors who are their enemies. But it would be hypocritical to pretend they do not enter the mind. About l,500 of the prisoners have been convicted of violence in the uprising, about 1,000 are awaiting trial. And that day there were 1,387 serving renewable six-month sentences who had been convicted of nothing, not even given any detailed charges of why they were there or anything resembling a fair hearing. I was permitted to enter one of their enclosures, which I selected at random, and went in alone. In the tents were men imprisoned for the first time. Others had served prison time for guerrilla action and had been rearrested after the intifada broke out. The prisoners used the time with me to talk with cold bitterness about just one thing, which they consider the cruelest punishment of all - incarceration without trial. Israeli officials believe the ''detainees'' are real leaders of the intifada, behind the rock-throwing children the world sees on television. They say they cannot be tried because the information comes from witnesses who would be murdered at once by the Palestine Liberation Organization if their identities became known. Probably true, but I left the tents convinced more than ever that no prisoner will ever forgive incarceration on secret warrant. Innocent or guilty, he will forever see himself the victim, not the criminal. Arbitrary arrest is an offense against legal morality. Israeli officials justify it as an essential military step in time of crisis. I think they are doing an injustice to the prisoners and what should be Israeli legal standards. But Israel remains the only democratic nation in the Middle East. To compare it to its neighbors or other totalitarian nations because of flaws in its democracy is fatuous. The difference does not justify imprisonment without trial. But here, too, particularly in this time of Israel's own political crisis about the road to peace, it would be hypocritical, and foolish, to pretend it does not enter the mind, and remain. ON MY MIND | Prison In the Sand |
263715_2 | Mitterrand conducted a broad review of the global political situation and, according to their spokesmen, agreed to issue a joint declaration tomorrow on the situation in Lebanon - a particular concern of the French president. Gennadi I. Gerasimov, the Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman, told journalists that Mr. Mitterrand expressed ''his faith in the success of perestroika.'' But Hubert Vedrine, the French president's spokesman, slightly modified this, saying that Mr. Mitterrand hoped for the success of the changes. Although the focus of his Paris stay is on political exchanges with Mr. Mitterrand - with whom he will have 10 hours of conversations - the Soviet leader will have an encounter tomorrow with French students and intellectuals at the Sorbonne and, late in the afternoon, hold a joint news conference. The Sorbonne encounter, which was requested by Mr. Gorbachev, could have an important symbolic weight, since French intellectual life has for more than a decade been marked by piercing criticism of the Soviet Union and of totalitarian systems generally. French intellectuals were highly influenced by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Score of Bilateral Accords The Gorbachev visit, according to French and Soviet officials, will also see the signing of a score of bilateral accords that will cover such matters as the production of French high-definition television sets in the Soviet Union, the training of Soviet business managers and the opening of cultural centers in Moscow and Paris. The two sides are also expected to initial an agreement permitting the resumption of contacts between the French and the Soviet military establishments - links that were broken after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Last April, Defense Minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement visited the Soviet Union - the first visit by a French defense minister in 12 years. Since Mr. Gorbachev's first visit to Paris in October 1985, relations between the two countries have steadily mended. After first being elected in 1981, Mr. Mitterrand made vigilance the hallmark of his attitude toward Moscow, but, lately, he has become much more receptive to Soviet disarmament initiatives. Opinion polls suggest that Mr. Gorbachev is extremely well-liked in France - two out of three asked have a positive opinion of him - but the same polls suggest that the French are much more skeptical than West Germans about his chances of success. Writing recently in Le Monde, Michel Tatu observed that the French were ''Gorbophiles,'' not ''Gorbomaniacs'' like the West Germans. | GORBACHEV LIKENS SOVIETS TO FRENCH |
266321_0 | LEAD: Before introducing his line of New Morning cereals in 1982, Jean Fialkoff conducted a taste test with a small group of consumers he knew quite well. He gathered his four children - ages 2, 3, 5 and 6 - around the kitchen table one morning for a sampling. They approved and a company was born. Before introducing his line of New Morning cereals in 1982, Jean Fialkoff conducted a taste test with a small group of consumers he knew quite well. He gathered his four children - ages 2, 3, 5 and 6 - around the kitchen table one morning for a sampling. They approved and a company was born. Once known for their seat-of-the-pants research and marketing, natural foods manufacturers are growing more sophisticated. Competition is keener. And taking on the mass-market manufacturers requires mass-market techniques. ''You have to be better - the market demands it now,'' said Gil Pritchard, president of Barbara's Bakery Inc. in Petuluma, Calif., a manufacturer of potato chips, breads, cookies and muffins. Barbara's Bakery is one of several manufacturers investing an ever increasing amount of money to improve its manufacturing technology, nutritional and market research, packaging and recipe and ingredient formulation. ''We're spending millions of dollars where we used to spend hundreds of dollars to satisfy the consumer's needs,'' Mr. Pritchard said. Pleasing the customer was why Barbara's has replaced standard whole wheat flour in its products with organic flour, made from wheat grown without pesticides. Similarly, most health food companies now use fruit juices as sweeteners because in taste tests consumers indicated that they disliked the strong after-taste of honey, the previous sweetener of choice. Companies are also pouring more money into promotion. Their packaging is more elaborate - often multi-colored. And these companies are making better use of the airwaves. For instance, Tom's of Maine Inc., a 19-year-old company with annual sales of $8.1 million, is expanding its advertising beyond Portland, Me., Washington, D.C., and northern California. This spring, it began advertising its natural toothpaste on the radio in New York, and this month it will feature half-page color inserts in the Sunday New York Times. A similar campaign is scheduled for southern California. Still, not all mass-market techniques are suitable for the health foods industry. For example, several manufacturers experimented with and subsequently abandoned coupons. They found that volumes of their products were not high enough for the endeavor to | HOW 'HEALTH FOOD HIPPIES' BECAME SERIOUS MARKETERS |
266204_4 | of glamour to a field that traditionally has been the province of a low-profile group of specialists and dedicated collectors. ''Antiquities was always the poor sister to every other department at Sotheby's and Christie's,'' says Harmer Johnson. Five years ago, however, collectors priced out of the Impressionist and contemporary art markets began looking elsewhere. And in the last year or so, the price curve for antiquities has become a straight line pointing up. Investment-minded buyers have discovered the lucrative appeal of terra-cotta fragments and Sumerian cylinder seals, Egyptian funerary statuettes and Roman portrait busts. Record-breaking auction prices have become almost routine. And auctions are only the tip of the iceberg: most pieces are sold quietly through dealers. Within weeks of Ed Merrin's splashy purchase, for example, another Cycladic figure was sold privately for $3 million. The Getty Museum is said to have paid $20 million for its Aphrodite, a larger-than-life-size Greek statue from the late fifth century B.C. Canal Capital's 1988 annual report boldly predicts that ''ancient art collecting will attract the next wave of international investors.'' In addition to backing the Merrin Gallery, Canal plans to spend $2 million opening its own gallery of ancient art in Manhattan, to be run by Tom Swope, formerly of the Robert Miller Gallery. Edelman says he also foresees using Canal Arts, together with Merrin, to strike partnership agreements with European antiquities dealers. Merrill Lynch, too, is bullish on ancient art. In 1986, it raised $7.3 million for the Athena I Fund, a limited partnership formed to invest in ancient coins. Recently, it sold out a $25 million Athena II, which will devote up to 20 percent of its assets to acquiring antiquities. Money is not the only motivation behind the antiquities boom. In its prospectus for Athena II, Merrill Lynch leaned heavily on the romance of the past, invoking ''the Golden Age of Athens, the conquests of Alexander the Great, the power and majesty of Imperial Rome.'' Andre Emmerich, a New York dealer who sells both ancient and contemporary art, offers an explanation to warm the heart of the University of Chicago's Allan Bloom: ''The interest in classical art reflects an interest in the classical origins of our civilization.'' Ed Merrin resists the urge to philosophize. ''What really made the collecting of antiquities go into a steep ascent was the October 19 crash,'' he says, referring to the stock market's 1987 debacle. | The Antiquities Boom - Who Pays The Price? |
266269_0 | LEAD: ''DADDY, do you yell at your orchestra as much as you yell at our baseball team?'' asked the blue-eyed fielder of the Dad's Club Darlings. A legitimate question given the fact that after each loss and cliff-hanging victory my vocal chords sound and feel like I have gorged on sandpaper canapes. ''DADDY, do you yell at your orchestra as much as you yell at our baseball team?'' asked the blue-eyed fielder of the Dad's Club Darlings. A legitimate question given the fact that after each loss and cliff-hanging victory my vocal chords sound and feel like I have gorged on sandpaper canapes. ''The men and women in my orchestra are professionals at the peak of their careers, virtuosos possessing a devotion to music bordering on the fanatic,'' I said. ''They come to rehearsals prepared to obey my every command, their parts honed to perfection, their hearts open to my inspiration, their minds awaiting my enlightened direction. We go over passages one, two, three times and then, if the results are unsatisfactory, I yell.'' All kidding aside, the innocent question from No. 72 (I haven't told her she has a football number) got me thinking. What is it about conducting a symphony orchestra and coaching a third- and fourth-grade girls baseball team that is so similar? Does Terpsichore preside over the National Pastime as well? Can a coach ''inspire'' a team to a better record? What would Maestro Toscanini have done with Darryl Strawberry? Or Maestro Tom LaSorda with the New York Philharmonic? Having completed three weeks of intense rehearsals of hitting, throwing and catching and half the regularly scheduled performances - we're only two games under .500 - here are some mid-season reflections. The Draft. Musicians' unions across the nation mandate that all auditions for orchestral positions be held ''behind a screen.'' The conductor hears the player who is auditioning but does not see him. The Greenburgh Parks and Recreation Department goes the American Federation of Musicians one better. All applications are placed in a pile and coaches select players according to strict guidelines formulated by the daughters who are on hand to assist in the draft process. ''Take Jenny. She's in my Brownie Troop.'' ''Cheryl's brother is cute, take her.'' ''Lori is Cheryl's friend.'' ''Kelly is tall.'' ''My sister baby-sits Jessica. They have a monster TV.'' Of such are rosters made. This Is a Ball; This Is a | Beethoven's Ninth, Bottom of the Ninth |
266056_1 | draw much interest, let alone fire, from politicians. But this year House Republicans were infuriated by a letter accompanying the Ways and Means Committee report on Government programs that said ''the rich are getting richer and the poor getting poorer.'' So the Republicans prepared an analysis accusing ''liberal Democrats'' of ''rewriting history'' by manipulating statistics to tar former President Ronald Reagan for the mistakes of his predecessor, Jimmy Carter. Like most other analyses of income distribution, the Ways and Means report ranks families by income classes - in this case, the poorest fifth to the richest fifth. But unlike most others, it adjusts the data to measure changes in living standards more accurately. For instance, the study adjusts incomes for inflation according to a new Census Bureau index that tracks housing costs to account for changing mortgage interest rates more precisely than older methods. Equally important, it compensates for differences in family sizes to show the quality of life that a family's income can support. Income Is Calculated Differently Other studies make no adjustments for family size, in effect assuming that a family of six can live as well on $15,000 a year as one person can. The committee staff recalculated family income as a percentage of the minimum poverty level. According to Labor Department estimates, a family of two needs 28 percent more to live decently than one person; a family of four, 101 percent more. The results sharply delineate now-familiar trends. The more than 40 million Americans in the bottom fifth of income distribution suffered a 1 percent decline in income adjusted for inflation and family size from 1973 to 1979, and 10 percent more from 1979 to 1987. By contrast, the adjusted income of Americans in the top fifth rose by 7 percent from 1973 to 1979 and by 16 percent more from 1979 to 1987. The stinging rebuttal to the Ways and Means report, which was prepared by the Republican Study Committee, focused its anger on the choice of the 1979-87 period for comparison. The Republicans argue that Mr. Reagan cannot be blamed for the decline in income among the poor in the last two years of the Carter Administration, which ended in January 1981. They assert that a proper test should begin only in 1982, the first year in which Reagan Administration tax and spending policies took effect. And, according to the Congressional Budget Office, | Economic Watch; Forces in Society, and Reaganism, Helped Dig Deeper Hole for Poor |
269015_0 | LEAD: The Chicago school board and the Federal Department of Education have announced an agreement on a plan to end a four-and-a-half-year impasse over the city's educational policies toward physically and mentally handicapped students. The Chicago school board and the Federal Department of Education have announced an agreement on a plan to end a four-and-a-half-year impasse over the city's educational policies toward physically and mentally handicapped students. Under the plan announced Friday, hundreds of positions for counseling and teaching special education students will be created; educational services for children with physical handicaps and learning disabilities will be spread throughout the district, rather than being concentrated in three buildings as they are now, and the district will add $4.4 million to its budget to carry out the plan. The changes will affect at least 4,000 of the district's 410,000 students. The settlement with the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights averts the loss of $4 million in Federal aid for magnet schools and more than $100 million in yearly Federal aid, board officials said. Last year, an administrative law judge ruled that Chicago was discriminating against pupils who are handicapped or have learning disabilities. ''This settlement brings to an end what can only be described as the shameful and disgraceful mistreatment of those children who are the most vulnerable and in need of our best care,'' James W. Compton, the board president, said at a news conference. ''Through sheer callousness and bureaucratic bungling the school system has allowed more than 4,000 handicapped kids to be warehoused in schools around the city, going without proper service and care,'' said Mr. Compton, who has been board president since April. ''No excuses or justifications can adequately explain how this gross neglect was permtted to continue for long.'' Approved in Vote by Telephone The Federal plan was adopted by a telephone vote of board members conducted by Mr. Compton on Wednesday, Bob Saigh, a board spokesman, said. The vote will be made public at a later meeting. The issue began Dec. 31, 1984, when the civil rights section of the Education Department told the Chicago board that it was investigating the evaluation and placement of handicapped children. That led to the finding of discrimination by an administrative law judge in August 1988. Attorneys representing the board negotiated the final settlement. Under it the board is to hire a number of additional employees, including 320 social | Chicago Schools Agree to Revamp Programs for Handicapped Pupils |
268736_5 | take-off and landing. But a United Airlines spokesman, Rob Doughty, after discussing the question with an airline safety official, said the airline does allow the seats to be used during takeoff and landing, and that the F.A.A. does not prohibit it. Three factors in this crash have focused attention on the issue. First, there was an unusually large number of children aboard, in part because airlines this summer offered free tickets to children flying with adults on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. A list of survivors compiled by The Associated Press shows 24 children under 10 years old, including seven under 5. The crash occurred on a Wednesday flight from Denver to Chicago. Second, the crew of Flight 232 had time to prepare for the impending crash, which would have allowed children to be strapped into safety seats if they were available. The pilots struggled to guide the DC-10 without one engine and with severe damage to its controls, and reached the runway in Sioux City for a crash landing after a half-hour emergency descent. Third, the drama of the catastrophic destruction of the plane and the survival of so many passengers has lent extra significance to the work of the safety board team investigating the factors that led to survival. Some Dissent Is Expressed United's policy is that car safety seats are permitted, although children under 2 must pay for a seat in order to guarantee an available place. Some airlines say babies can use safety seats without buying a ticket if there is a spare airplane seat open. In case no extra seat is available, the safety seat would have to be stored in overhead compartments or checked with other luggage. Other airlines said the child seats could be used only if a ticket was purchased for the child, even if extra seats were available on the flight. One airline reservation agent strongly discouraged the use of safety seats by children. ''The seats are not used on airplanes,'' said a supervisor at the reservation office. Many reservation agents warned that individual airline agents or flight crews might give different orders at the time of a flight. A recent F.A.A. test of safety seats using dummies simulated the effect of a sudden deceleration that created a force nine times the strength of gravity. Both baby dummies remained strapped in the safety seats and the seats were still attached to the airplane | Presence on Jet of Many Children Prompts New Push for Safety Seats |
268389_0 | LEAD: To the Editor: To the Editor: A July 9 front-page article portrays the problem facing this country's main religious groups, with the numbers and quality of priests, ministers and rabbis on the decline, and fewer and fewer recruits in the pipeline. As a resigned priest, now married and the father of four, I'd like to offer some thoughts on the situation affecting the Roman Catholic Church. The menacing demographics are reducible to three trends. (1) Many ordained Catholic priests have left the clerical priesthood over the last two decades. (2) Far fewer young men are entering seminaries to prepare for ordination. (This, by the way, is equally true of young women who decide to become nuns.) Either of these trends would or should be cause for concern to the Catholic bishops. Together, they spell nothing short of disaster, especially in the context of the third trend. (3) The Catholic population continues to grow. The result: more and more people to be served, and fewer and fewer priests to serve them. We have, then, a venerable institution that finds itself in trouble. One would think the long-range planners in the American hierarchy and the Vatican would be working overtime on creative solutions to this problem. But any evidence of such an approach is hard to find. Can it be that the bishops do not see a problem in the first place? Hardly. They see the problem, while acting as if there were none. How explain such behavior by the church leadership? As your article points out, Pope John Paul II will not allow even a discussion of celibacy and its obligatory connection to ordination. Nor will he consider a discussion of the reasons for and against allowing women to be ordained. Well, in the United States, we believe in open discussion. We believe in letting people with ideas speak up, rather than in the suppression of ideas. We don't go for banning thought. Rome may try to prevent a full airing of this question, but it cannot stop me from writing this letter, which I trust will be read and thought about by many people of good will. The bishops may be afraid to say publicly what a good number of them acknowledge in private, but we laymen, including thousands of married priests, will continue to call for an open and full sharing of the ideas of the best and | Church Must Look at Causes of Clergy Shortage |
268585_0 | LEAD: Michael Manley promised a quiet Jamaica and, so far, that is what he has delivered. Michael Manley promised a quiet Jamaica and, so far, that is what he has delivered. Nearly six months after his return to power as Prime Minister, there have been no shocks, no surprises, none of the wild excitement that kept the country gasping during his first eight years in office in the 1970's. This time Mr. Manley is not flirting with Fidel Castro, and the United States is ''our biggest trading partner,' not a menacing superpower. The new Manley, now 64 years old, is reserved and dignified. On the road, in Washington, London, Paris and Madrid he is the earnest chief of state, looking for moral support and money to help tiny Jamaica make its way in the mainstream of developing countries. For the moment, plans to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba appear to be on a back burner. ''Like so many other social democrats,'' Mr. Manley said in an interview the other day, ''I have undergone a very serious re-evaluation of what will work.'' In practice, that has meant a frugal national budget with none of the big social programs for which Mr. Manley had been renowned. It has also meant selling a controlling interest in the Jamaican telephone company to a British multinational company and selling off the dozen or so resort hotels that his Government took over during the 1970's. ''I believe in a dynamic state,'' Mr. Manley said. ''But I no longer believe that the state does best if it interferes in production.'' In another departure from his old ways, Mr. Manley removed Government subsidies from flour, cooking oil and other basic foods, causing price rises of up to 50 percent. He eliminated a tax on the banking industry and made it easier to import automobiles. His one concession to the country's social needs has been a pledge to give teachers a pay raise. ''Ninety-five percent of what he's done would sit very comfortably with conservative politicians,'' said one Jamaican businessman who follows politics closely. ''He showed quite a lot of bravery in raising the food prices.'' Mr. Manley's new approach was not developed in a vacuum. A foreign debt of $4 billion is eating up 51 percent of Jamaica's foreign exchange earnings and the earnings themselves were diminished as a result of a hurricane last September. Furthermore, since he | Mellow Manley Steers Jamaica to Quiet Days |
268262_0 | LEAD: >TEN MILES EAST OF SPITAK, the Armenian town closest to the epicenter of last December's cataclysmic earthquake, the city of Kirovakan still has a skyline. All 100 or so of the 9- and 10-story apartment buildings there remain erect. Meanwhile, in Leninakan, 30 miles west of Spitak, most of the equivalent structures were leveled by the quake (right) or damaged beyond repair and demolished. >TEN MILES EAST OF SPITAK, the Armenian town closest to the epicenter of last December's cataclysmic earthquake, the city of Kirovakan still has a skyline. All 100 or so of the 9- and 10-story apartment buildings there remain erect. Meanwhile, in Leninakan, 30 miles west of Spitak, most of the equivalent structures were leveled by the quake (right) or damaged beyond repair and demolished. ''This is what intrigues us,'' says John Filson, a seismologist with the United States Geological Survey, ''the enormous difference in the damage pattern.'' In the weeks after the earthquake, Filson led a group of American engineers, seismologists and geologists on a research visit to the disaster site. Its findings were shared at an international conference, sponsored by UNESCO in Armenia in May. ''We feel the geologic setting caused the asymmetry,'' Filson says, explaining that Kirovakan was built largely on hard rock and Leninakan on an old lake bed whose sediments ''amplify seismic shaking and tune its frequencies so it is particularly damaging to multistory apartment buildings.'' As Leninakan sets out to rebuild, (above), Soviet officials say there will be no structures higher than four stories. ''If that's the case there should be no problem,'' Filson says. But he warns that geologic conditions similar to Leninakan's exist elsewhere, including filled areas around San Francisco Bay and parts of the Los Angeles basin. The United States Geological Survey is developing a mathematical model for such land forms, based on data gleaned from the Armenian quake. ''If you can document the geologic situation and show it had impact on the damage,'' Filson says, ''maybe something can be done in other locations, at least in the construction of future buildings. Maybe we can save some lives.'' - BRUCE WEBER | Works in Progress; From the Ground Up, Warily |
268350_0 | LEAD: ''ARTIST IN THE MARKETPLACE,'' a yearly event at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, is no ordinary group show but the end product of a 16-week-long program addressed to selected artists. The program consists of seminars led by curators, dealers, critics, lawyers and other professionals equipped to convey the facts of professional life; the show is provided by the artists enrolled. ''ARTIST IN THE MARKETPLACE,'' a yearly event at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, is no ordinary group show but the end product of a 16-week-long program addressed to selected artists. The program consists of seminars led by curators, dealers, critics, lawyers and other professionals equipped to convey the facts of professional life; the show is provided by the artists enrolled. Usually, the Marketplace show is quite lively but this year's version doesn't get off the ground. Good works are few and far between, and there is only one really outstanding piece, the sculpture called ''Columns'' by Zdeno Majercak. Three tall tree trunks have been hollowed out, pierced with holes and stained dark brown; two have been left cylindrical and one has been more or less squared. The holes come small and medium-sized, round and rectangular, but although they are arranged in different patterns they tend to spiral around the trunks in rows. In the cylinder that is mounted on a kind of wheelbarrow, the openings resemble arched windows, so that the effect is of a Leaning Tower of Pisa. But it depends on the distance between the holes and the number of larger apertures cut into the columns whether the result is compressive or lacily tensile. Mr. Majercak was born and trained in Czechoslovakia but his art recalls the folk architecture that is sometimes found in West African and Middle Eastern cultures. Micky Schon's painting of a figure in papal robes is worth a second look for the expressionistic zest with which its reds and flashing whites are applied. ''Kinder Toten Lied'' by James Maszel is a noteworthy impression of an interior - seemingly a hopsital ward - where creamy white lightcomes through a side window to illuminate shadows painted in thin washes of sepia and warmer browns. But it has a few technical affectations, like the glass fragment clipped to the canvas over the silhouette of a small boy. James Barry says in his catalogue statement that in searching for a ''new Celtic vision,'' he begins | A Group Show at Bronx Museum LBy VIVIEN RAYNOR |
268350_3 | from its owner. There is also Debra Goldman's beautiful if somewhat obscure still life in sepia tones that involves what appears to be a black pebble in a scallop shell surmounted by an engraving of a snake. On view through July 30, the show comes with an $8 booklet that has a short introduction by its organizer, Joan Snitzer, and 36 color reproductions - one for each artist. A note on the solo exhibitions now at the museum, one by Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the other by Franta. Cans and bottles returned to stores are recycled by companies; those not returned get recycled by Mrs. Ukeles, along with discarded Christmas trees, old tires and the little corkscrews of metal scaled from the wheels of subway cars. Not all of it, of course, but enough to make ''Flow City,'' the blocklong environment that the artist is working on in the Sanitation Department's new waste-transfer station at West 59th Street in Manhattan. The works in the show, models for the project, run from a heap of the subway tailings ringed by the tiny red lights used for tunnel work to long curtains covered with crushed green glass. In between, are three tall trapezoidal trays filled with sludge dredged from rivers and dried; and another large tray of crushed, mostly Budweiser, cans that comes with additional cans compressed into neat parcels. Plastic bottles cut into serrated ribbons are attached to structures like bed springs, as are the shredded tires - this assemblage recalls the more somber abstractions of Milton Resnick. Unlike most assemblagists, who strive for antique effect, Mrs. Ukeles seems to shampoo most of her ingredients, making them pristine and leaving herself open to charges of slickness. But her work is ingenious and it is only in retrospect that the mind begins boggling at the thought of all the city's trash converted into art, thus creating another disposal problem. The show ends Sept. 4. Franta, a Czechoslovak-born painter who lives in France, shows recent works inspired by visits to Africa. Some are monochromes, others are richly colored but all involve life-size blue-black nudes in, presumably, a tribal context. The bodies are well drawn but are merely bodies. Attention to character and the exact nature of the surroundings would better convey the artist's feelings about the beauty of his subjects. The show remains through Sept. 10. All three events can be seen from 10 | A Group Show at Bronx Museum LBy VIVIEN RAYNOR |
268587_5 | Cornish coast, crowded with bays, coves, creeks - and wrecks - offers superb if sometimes extremely demanding sailing. For able sailors, the Channel Isles and Isles of Scilly, as well as the coasts of southern Ireland, Wales and northern France, are within reach. For novices, the Fowey estuary and harbor are generally safe. SPORT, then, is a strong part of the area's appeal. But for many visitors, a combination of what might be called the three English H's -history, houses, and hiking - exert the greatest appeal. Even by British standards, Fowey and several of its neighboring towns are exceptionally rich in historic associations. Moreover, while Cornwall is not as celebrated for its great houses as are several other counties, there are a number of houses in the county well worth a visit. And the hiking or walking is generally superb. The history of Fowey and its surroundings is dominated by the river and the sea. Two-thousand-year-old fishhooks and traces of a Roman causeway along the Fowey estuary are evidence of early settlement. In the Middle Ages the town was an important point of departure for religious pilgrims traveling to Europe. But for centuries afterward, driven by less elevated ambitions, it was a center of privateering and smuggling. The Fowey ''gallants'' sailed the seas boldly and, through the spoliation of French ports and coastal towns, became ''rich, proud and mischievous,'' according to a contemporary account. In 1456, seeking retaliation, the French attacked Fowey and burned much of the town. In more recent times Fowey has evolved from being a base for naval and maritime operations to being a center, albeit small, for shipping and tourism. The Napoleonic Wars brought much shipbuilding work, and the town sent 70 men to fight, more than twice the number from any other Cornish town. Later the export of china clay increased to the point where, with the holiday business, it is now the mainstay of the local economy. Briefly replaying an old part, Fowey was one of the English ports from which, on June 6, 1944, ships (loaded with American soldiers) sailed to invade France. The great ships of Fowey's past, whether they carried pilgrims, privateers, smugglers, or soldiers, are gone, and the sort of history that can be seen and touched lies largely in the old buildings of the region. For example, the church in Fowey, St. Fimbarrus, whose tower is one of | A Literary Corner Of Cornwall |
268394_0 | LEAD: To the Editor: To the Editor: Viewing with alarm the declining number of ordained members of the clergy in the country is only one possible perspective on the issues raised in your front-page article of July 9. Other perspectives view the shortage as the beginning of the end of priestly control, as the inevitable process of the democratization of religion, as the renewal of the concept of equality of all believers. One can certainly ask where is a future Martin Luther King Jr., but one can also ask where is a future Rosa Parks? Ms. Parks, although not a member of the ordained clergy, played a seminal role in the morality of our times. Her action galvanized the civil rights movement. She illustrates the role of the unordained in moral issues. Religion is defined only once in the Bible, as having to do with visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction (James 1:27). If this definition of religion is correct, then all those who care for the lost and powerless in society are practicing religion. The decline in numbers of ordained members of the clergy may cause, not a lack of moral leadership in the country, as one man you quote suggests, but a revival of individuals assuming responsibility for their own interpretation of Deity, their own sense of church. From Abraham and Moses to Jesus, from Martin Luther to Martin Luther King Jr., this is the history of religion and church. It is possible that this is also the present state and that what we are seeing in declining numbers in the authorized clergy is a call to the churches to democratize their institutions, and a demand on men, women and children to assume individual responsibility for their relationship to God. LYNNE BUNDESEN New York, July 10, 1989 | Church Must Look at Causes of Clergy Shortage; Beginning of the End |
268540_1 | optical disks that store reams of information. An encyclopedia can be recorded on a disk the size of a musical CD. A small library can be contained in an optical jukebox. Experts agree that merely presenting information on a screen instead of on paper is not going to attract a wide following. Rather, they say, electronic presentations will make sense only when they do something paper cannot do. Paper is limited to presenting words, numbers and pictures. But with a computerized document, one might point to the pistons on a drawing of an engine and see them spring to life, while a voice explains how they work. Electronic memos might be passed from person to person, with each adding oral comments instead of scribbling in the margin. Another limitation of paper documents is that it is hard to jump around in them. People tend to read from beginning to end, consuming the information in an order chosen by the author. With hypertext readers would have more flexibility, wending their way through a document in any order they choose. In a hypertext encyclopedia entry about the French Revolution, for instance, a mention of Marie Antoinette might inspire a reader to push a button on the computer and jump to a reference about guillotines. That could in turn lead to a note about Joseph Ignace Guillotin, for whom the device is named. Hypertext need not be limited to prose. Making it multimedia would give rise to hypermedia, allowing a reader to hear and see a guillotine in action or sit in on a production of Voltaire. Perhaps the most fundamental difference between the old and the future way of publishing is that paper has no knowledge of what is printed on it while a computer has the potential to understand what it is displaying and act on it. Scientists envision electronic assistants that will read documents for people, helping them organize information and screening out electronic junk mail. Several companies have developed automated message handlers that route and extract electronic information. At Citibank, for example, computers send incoming telex messages to the right department. For telexes involving money transfers, information is extracted about how much is to be paid to whom. John Clippinger, a computer consultant in Cambridge, Mass., said that in the future vendors might sell streams of raw information rather than editing and displaying it, as newspaper and magazine publishers | An Avalanche of Information Is Coming to Video Screens |
270354_2 | was canceled, the Navy said, ''because of intentional interference from foreign flag ships in a designated hazardous operating area.'' ''Concern for the safety of the personnel of the interfering ships precluded launching the test missile,'' the Navy said. Shannon Fagan, a Greenpeace spokeswoman at the organization's command post in Daytona Beach, Fla., said Greenpeace was ''happy'' about the cancellation of the test launching. ''But we would be happier if the Navy canceled the Trident 2 missile altogether,'' she said. Shadowed, the Navy Says Ms. Fagan said two large Greenpeace ships and two motorized rafts had sailed into the test zone and shadowed the Tennessee for hours. One of the launches slipped up to the side of the vessel and its crew attached banners reading ''Nuclear Free Seas'' to the radio mast and side of the submarine, she said. The Navy radioed the larger vessels, the 60-foot ketch Mondcivitano, and the 190-foot M. V. Greenpeace, with warnings to quit the area because of the imminent test, but the crews refused, Ms. Fagan said. ''Our captain radioed back that he did not recognize U.S. Navy jurisdiction there because it was international waters,'' she said. American territorial waters extend 12 miles offshore. At one point, Ms. Fagan said, a Navy whaleboat twice rammed the Mondcivitano, which sails under Swedish registry. Navy officials said they could not confirm or deny that the ramming occurred. They said the guided missile destroyer Josephus Daniels, which is assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, based in Norfolk, Va., did have whaleboats, which are similar to lifeboats, in the water at the time. Greenpeace grew out of a committee of environmentalists in Vancouver, British Columbia, who sent an old fishing vessel temporarily named Greenpeace to the Aleutian Islands in 1971 to protest a United States underground nuclear weapon test. In July 1985, French military frogmen sank a Greenpeace vessel, the Rainbow Warrior, by attaching explosive charges to her hull while she was berthed in Auckland, New Zealand. One member of the crew, a photographer, was killed in the incident. At first, French officials denied involvement in the incident, but a series of press reports eventually forced the Paris Government to admit that its secret service had carried out the operation. The group became the Greenpeace Foundation in the early 1970's and began organizing dramatic protests intended to draw attention to environmental causes and to oppose the spread of nuclear weapons. | Navy Missile Test Is Scuttled By Anti-Nuclear Protesters |
270365_0 | LEAD: When it comes to recycling, manufacturers of consumer products are doing what comes easily. Impressive amounts of their readily reusable products are being recycled: 25 percent of all paper, 25 percent of glass bottles, 55 percent of aluminum cans and 66 percent of all steel. When it comes to recycling, manufacturers of consumer products are doing what comes easily. Impressive amounts of their readily reusable products are being recycled: 25 percent of all paper, 25 percent of glass bottles, 55 percent of aluminum cans and 66 percent of all steel. But the surging movement for household recycling, which requires relatively pure and simple products and packages, is colliding with consumer demand for highly processed products and elaborate packaging. Now, more and more consumer products and packages are being made of materials that are difficult or impossible to recycle. But in coming years manufacturers will be testing the strength of public officials' commitment to recycling as well as assessing the changing needs and attitudes of consumers moving from a society that throws away materials toward one that recycles them. ''It's probably unfair at this point to say that industries haven't done enough to detoxify their products and promote recycling,'' said Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York. ''It's only within the past two years that they have had a mandate from regulators and consumers.'' In recent months some manufacturers of products that cause the most environmental harm in landfills or incinerators - plastics, paints, dry-cell batteries, tires - have begun to remove some toxic substances from their products. Manufacturers are also beginning to market ''green products,'' already widely available in England and Canada, that are made from recycled materials, or are themselves recyclable or biodegradable, or that minimize waste. For example, the Scotch Corporation, a chemical manufacturer in Dallas, has just introduced plastic pouches of concentrated household cleaners that consumers can mix with water and use to refill empty 22-ounce spray bottles. Consumers' Needs Home Recyclers Find Few Aids in Stores Generally, however, producers and retailers have ignored the practical problems faced by consumers who must organize their garbage. ''I don't think companies are doing anything to make recycling easier,'' said Barb Whittemore, a registered nurse who lives in Hamburg, N.Y., a suburb of Buffalo that has had a mandatory recycling program for several years. She especially dislikes cleaning small containers and | In Sorting Trash, Householders Get Little Help From Industry |
265011_3 | of the conservation project would be set aside for wildlife, sustainable logging for mahogany and cedar would be permitted in other areas. Sapodilla trees will be tapped for the chicle used in chewing gum, Mr. Burley said. The area is rich in Mayan ruins, which will be opened to tourism. Mr. Burley said conditions for conservation in Belize were better than in most other areas of Central America because population density was relatively low, pressures on the land were not as great and the natural resource base ''has not been raped and destroyed.'' Nevertheless, there are strong development pressures building. One of the problems Mr. Burley faces is the theft of timber from the conservation area. With mature mahogany logs worth as much as $1,000 each, poor people are tempted to cut trees illegally. ''That's as much as some of these guys earn in a year, so you can understand why they do it,'' he said. The Belize program is one of a number of environmental projects in Central and South America run or supported by United States environmentalists. Environmental groups are increasingly concerned that the destruction of forests and the deterioration of natural systems in Latin America contribute to such problems as the loss of species and the threat of global warming. Recently, for example, the World Wildife Fund, along with the Nature Conservancy, bought $10 million worth of Ecuador's foreign debt. The i.o.u.'s were traded to the Ecuadorean Government for local-currency bonds, which were turned over to Fundacion Natura, a nonprofit Ecuadorean group. It will use the interest on the bonds for conservation projects in the Galapagos Islands, the Amazon forests and elsewhere. Money Stays in Ecuador The benefit to the Ecuadorean Government is that it is relieved of part of its foreign debt, increasing its credit worthiness. Moreover, money that would have been paid as interest to foreign banks is now being spent in the domestic economy, generating income for the country. United States groups have participated in a number of these debt-for-nature transactions in Latin America as a means of relieving countries of part of their debt and encouraging the conservation of land and resources. Conservation International, a group that pioneered the debt-for-nature concept, recently began to carry out a new ''ecosystem conservation strategy'' in Bolivia, Costa Rica and Mexico. The strategy combines economic development with resource conservation similar to the approach being taken in Belize. | An Audubon Group Finds Its Interests Extend Far to South |
265023_6 | That assertion is now being challenged by laboratory experiments on living cells and animals, and by the epidemiological studies that have shown a statistical association - but no cause-and-effect relationship -between cancer and exposure to electromagnetic fields from wires that carry electricity through neighborhoods and into homes. Laboratory Studies Abnormalities In Embryos Findings from what is still a young and growing body of laboratory experiments with human cells and animals suggest that electromagnetic fields can interfere with the functioning of D.N.A. and R.N.A., the controllers of cell reproduction; that they can cause reproductive disorders and birth defects in chicks; that they stimulate activity in biochemicals linked to the growth of cancer; and that they affect other substances that are critically involved in the workings of the central nervous system. At the cellular level, the evidence so far identifies the membrane that envelops the cell as the main site of interaction with electromagnetic fields. The membrane governs some of the cell's most critical functions, like the flow of material, energy and information from the outside to the interior. If its function were severely disrupted, cell-to-cell communication and the immune response could also be disrupted, scientists say. Some experiments have found that exposure to electrical power fields alters the flow of calcium across the cell membrane, although the health significance is not clear. Calcium governs cell division and egg fertilization. One experiment has shown that electromagnetic fields change the rate of synthesis in deoxyribonucleic acid and another that they interfere with the functioning of ribonucleic acid in converting the instructions issued by D.N.A. into production of proteins. Still another has shown that the radiation spurs the action of an enzyme associated with the growth of cancerous tumors. Mood and Sleep Disorders One cellular experiment has shown that 60-hertz electromagnetic fields alter the action of hormones called neurotransmitters, which send signals between nerves, and of hormones that control the biological clock. If the same effect occurs in humans, the O.T.A. study said, this might play a role in a number of disorders, including altered sensitivity to drugs and toxins, disruption of the biological clock, mood and sleep disorders and chronic depression. In what has been called the ''henhouse project,'' six independent laboratories in the United States, Canada and Europe exposed fertilized chicken eggs to pulses of 60-hertz radiation like that emanating from video display terminals and television sets. Taken together, the experiments showed | Scientists Debate Health Hazards of Electromagnetic Fields |
270697_5 | by regions, municipalities and - especially for prestige projects - by business corporations. Yet Antonio Cederna, a leading environmentalist, charged that because of bureaucratic bungling the Government actually spent not more than $215 million a year on maintenance and restoration of the cultural patrimony - the cost of about 10 miles of new highways. In contrast, other critics said Italy was apparently without any effort lavishing billions of dollars on the enlargement of stadiums and on other new facilities in a dozen cities in preparation for the world soccer championships next year. For some time it seemed Italian authorities used what little money they had available for art only in emergencies. This attitude appears to be changing. The new archeological museum of Syracuse, for instance, provides an ideal setting (in the Villa Landolina on the city's northern outskirts) for the most important collection of Sicilian antiquities. Much-needed consolidation work is under way in Pompeii, the Roman city smothered by ashes from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. And in Rome, the steel tube and green wire-mesh corsets have just come off the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, the Arch of Constantine and some other ancient monuments, which have been treated to a $150 million restoration.'') A nationwide survey, carried out by the Government with the help of private consultants, recently recommended urgent rehabilitation of 1,115 monuments, collections and individual works of art. The report singled out 70 priority cases, from the Egyptian Museum in Turin to Emperor Hadrian's villa near Tivoli to archeological remains on Sicilian islands. Since the Pavia crash there is understandable trepidation for others of Italy's many historic towers. Pisa's Leaning Tower has been monitored for decades; the latest instrument readings indicate the increase in the inclination of the 800-year-old marble pile on its spongy subsoil has slowed to less than four-hundredths of an inch a year. But what about all the other tall structures? The 410-year-old Campanile on Rome's Capitol Hill, for one, is shaky, and something will have to be done to steady it. Then there is the Torrazzo, the 397-foot octagonal bell tower in the central piazza of Cremona, dating from the 13th century and still one of the loftiest buildings in Italy. Misgivings about its stability are being voiced. The challenge is enormous. It remains to be seen whether Italy can find the will, and the money, to meet it. | Italy's Endangered Treasures |
270746_0 | LEAD: A SYMPATHETIC world keeps careful watch on elephants, pandas, whales, whooping cranes, California condors, blackfooted ferrets and other highly visible endangered species. For scientists, the fates of these animals is of great concern, and environmental groups have been able to rally parts of the public to the cause of rescuing them from extinction. A SYMPATHETIC world keeps careful watch on elephants, pandas, whales, whooping cranes, California condors, blackfooted ferrets and other highly visible endangered species. For scientists, the fates of these animals is of great concern, and environmental groups have been able to rally parts of the public to the cause of rescuing them from extinction. But biologists complain that despite their many warnings and efforts over the decades, many thousands of more obscure organisms are disappearing virtually unnoticed each year because of the ungentle agency of human activity. Agriculture, industry and urbanization are destroying entire ecological systems in what is, by the time scale of biology, a blink of the eye. The greatest rate of loss is now occurring where moist tropical forests, which include the widest range of species, are being cut or burned in Latin America, Africa and Asia. To a lesser degree, clusters of mass extinctions are also taking place in marine ecosystems, particularly coral reefs, on islands and in mountain ranges. As these fragile systems vanish, they take with them the animals, plants and microorganisms that have evolved within their boundaries over millions of years. In many cases, these life forms are being destroyed before they are even identified and classified. E. O. Wilson, a Harvard biologist and expert on species diversity, contends that even by the most conservative estimates, human activity is causing the greatest spasm of extinction since the end of the Mesozoic era, 65 million years ago. ''There is a biodiversity crisis going on now,'' Dr. Wilson maintained, ''and it is likely to accelerate without considerable effort to avert or moderate it, especially in the tropical countries.'' The minimum estimate of the number of species that inhabit tropical forests is two million. Of those some 4,000 a year are becoming extinct. But Dr. Wilson stressed that both the actual number of species inhabiting the forests and the number that are disappearing are probably many times greater than any estimates. In fact, no one knows the full extent of the problem because no one knows how many species exist. So far, about | THE WORLD: An Update on the Destruction of Species; Where the Planet Is Losing Its Life Forms |
270458_3 | damage could not be undone. In the next few years Mr. Dorris learned a lot about fetal alcohol syndrome, a condition that was being identified and explored by the international medical community in the 1970's, just when Adam's medical and learning disabilities were baffling his father. Medical news doesn't always travel fast. While Adam was struggling to comprehend the simplest of tasks in elementary school, some doctors were still prescribing an occasional glass of wine to pregnant women for relaxation. But by 1981, the Food and Drug Administration was warning health professionals that pregnant women should drink no alcohol at all, that even small, casual doses had been linked to increased risk of low birth weight and spontaneous abortion. The definition of fetal alcohol syndrome, Mr. Dorris writes, embraces individuals who share several recognizable characteristics: ''(1) significant growth retardation both before and after birth; (2) measurable mental deficit; (3) altered facial characteristics; (4) other physical abnormalities; and (5) documentation of maternal alcoholism.'' By 1988 the ''mental deficit'' category had been refined to include ''attention deficits,'' or the inability to concentrate on a single task; memory problems; hyperactivity; low I.Q.; and an inability, apparently connected to a defective grasp of cause-and-effect relations, to handle money, regardless of ''sex, age, educational level or background.'' For three years after he learned the name of Adam's condition, Mr. Dorris traveled the country, collecting the bleak stories of Indians dying from whatever alcohol product they could find; death by hair spray, death by antifreeze (the fate of Adam's natural mother). He also heard of the grim beginnings; babies born reeking of cheap wine, babies born with delirium tremens. At the numerous medical conferences he attended, Mr. Dorris learned that thousands of children are born each year with full fetal alcohol syndrome - about 7,500 by one estimate. Thousands more suffer the lesser disabilities of fetal alcohol effect - feeding difficulties in infants, in older children marginal mental retardation, short memory span, emotional instability. These are afflictions that know no ethnic or class bounds, Mr. Dorris realized, although, as he writes, ''historically and presently'' it is a ''major problem for American Indians.'' Drinking alcohol has long been a ''venerable part of social culture'' in many societies - for men. However, according to recent studies, the condition seems to be emerging around the world when '' 'modern' women, regardless of their class or ethnic background'' begin drinking. | ALCOHOL'S CHILD: A FATHER TELLS HIS TALE |
270763_4 | appear as if he was flying his family home from a Caribbean vacation. While cocaine smuggling is largely controlled by the South American drug gangs, the pilots are mainly American, the Federal drug agents say. Most are over 35 years old and have thousands of hours of flight experience. John Fernandes, a Federal drug agent in Miami, said, ''There's no itinerant sharecropper behind the control stick of a plane flying 1,000 kilograms of coke.'' The staging point for many illegal flights is a plateau in the northern part of Colombia where dozens of runways have been carved out of the dessert clay. The runways are littered with airplane wrecks that give testament to the danger of the business. ''There isn't a dirt strip down there that doesn't have 10, 20 wrecks,'' said the pilot-turned-informer. ''A lot of guys don't even get off the ground'' because they try to fly such heavy loads. Smuggling in $100,000 Planes In addition to taking risks, the pilots and their backers are equally willing to invest in elaborate equipment. The plane they prefer is no longer a small $250,000 piston-powered craft. Rather, it is a million-dollar turboprop, equipped with extra fuel tanks and $100,000 in electronics, including radar-detection devices and long-range radios. And the smugglers are quick to modify tactics. For instance, Customs agents say they may now arrange, as diversions, to have as many as six boats rendezvous for an airdrop. After the drop, they scatter in different directions, frequently off Cay-Sal, a chain of islands about 25 miles north of Cuba. ''We don't have the resources to track six boats simultaneously,'' said Robert Viator, a Customs pilot. Despite Fidel Castro's warning that he would shoot down drug smugglers detected in Cuban skies, Federal officials remain skeptical about the sincerity of his anti-drug effort. To provide their own counterintelligence, the cocaine trafficers moor lookout boats beneath their planned drug flights to alert pilots when they are being followed. On the anti-drug side, radar-equipped planes flown by several United States agencies are able to spot low-flying craft as far away as 200 miles. From Miami, the Customs Services flies 15 planes, including two Cessna jets that are also equipped with infrared sensors. The Coast Guard, which joined the air-interception effort in 1986, has five radar-equipped Falcon jets. Expanded radar coverage in southern Florida is provided by five radar units on balloons tethered to land. Floating | AIRBORNE DRUG WAR IS AT A STALEMATE |
270780_3 | Kitchin ''told me he would talk with somebody in Washington, that he was up there frequently, that he knew all of these people.'' He recalled discussing Ms. Dean with Mr. Kitchin. ''It was pretty plain that Deborah Dean was the power in the Secretary's office,'' the developer said in an interview. The project was financed under the department's retirement service center program, which was suspended earlier this year after internal audits showed that assistance intended for low-income housing under the program was instead being diverted to projects for the middle-class and the rich. The Government has already lost $119 million after private developers defaulted on loans insured under the program. Internal documents show that Ms. Dean intervened in 1986 and 1987 to overrule regional H.U.D. officials in California who had rejected the Woodcrest application. According to the documents, the H.U.D. offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco opposed the mortgage-insurance application on economic grounds, arguing that there was a weak market in San Diego for subsidized housing like that of Woodcrest. In a Dec. 12, 1986, letter, a housing specialist in the Los Angeles office wrote Mr. Jaynes to say, ''It is our opinion that market conditions in San Diego County will not support'' the project. An Appeal to Pierce A week later the developer sent a letter to Secretary Pierce to appeal the decision, arguing that H.U.D. regional officials had failed to analyze the San Diego housing market properly and that there was actually a strong market for the project. At that point, the documents show, Ms. Dean intervened, sending a handwritten note to a colleague on Dec. 30 asking him to ''please look into this -an independent analysis seems in order.'' The note does not make clear why Ms. Dean took a special interest in Woodcrest. Despite her efforts, another of Secretary Pierce's aides rejected the appeal the next month and, according to a draft letter, told Mr. Jaynes that the development would ''exacerbate'' an oversupply of housing for the elderly. An additional analysis prepared for Ms. Dean in February 1987 found that Mr. Jaynes had used an ''extremely theoretical'' method for demonstrating a strong market for Woodcrest, and that the project had been rejected on the basis of ''a knowledge of other projects in the pipeline.'' Yet Ms. Dean sent the analysis back to its author on Feb. 18 with a one-sentence, handwritten note: ''If we have | Ex-Reagan Aide Helped Project Gain at H.U.D. |
270740_0 | LEAD: THE relatively high survival rate of passengers in the July 19 United Airlines crash in Sioux City, Iowa, has focused renewed attention on ways to make airplanes safer. In recent years the Federal Aviation Administration, under pressure from groups representing pilots, passengers, flight attendants and even the industry, has issued numerous rules and advisories intended to improve safety. THE relatively high survival rate of passengers in the July 19 United Airlines crash in Sioux City, Iowa, has focused renewed attention on ways to make airplanes safer. In recent years the Federal Aviation Administration, under pressure from groups representing pilots, passengers, flight attendants and even the industry, has issued numerous rules and advisories intended to improve safety. Among the more sweeping is a requirement, now being phased in, that more than 150 parts be routinely replaced on aircraft more than 20 years old - at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars a plane. But many airlines face a shortage of mechanics at a time when more maintenance is required, and there is always the question of who should absorb the high costs involved in many of the changes. In other areas, some groups, including the F.A.A., have asked that on-board safety briefings be made more interesting and accurate to insure that passengers are learning the proper safety procedures. Here, compiled from discussions with government, passenger and industry groups, are other changes required, under discussion or suggested in an attempt to make flying safer. COCKPIT Pilots: Rules requiring pilots to retire at age 60 failed court challenges by groups that say the limit is arbitrary and removes the most experienced pilots. Some groups advocate waivers for pilots above retirement age who prove themselves medically fit and who pass performance tests. Avoiding collisions: By the end of 1991, all planes that carry more than 30 passengers must have a device that warns when another plane is too close and recommends evasive maneuvers. The device costs $100,000 to $130,000 per plane, and some concern exists that it overloads the pilot by adding another warning sound; some industry groups are seeking a delay in the installation deadline. Private planes operating near many airports or above 12,500 feet will be required to have devices that signal their altitude and position. Wind-shear detectors: In addition to improved instruments on the ground that warn controllers of rapid changes in wind direction or speed, planes with | Widening the Margin of Safety in Flying |
270715_6 | his most recent efforts on ''Nightingales,'' in which nurses spent most of their time tending to sexual antics, and ''Heartbeat,'' about a group of women doctors, one of them a lesbian. Neither series was renewed for next season. Not too long ago, a special report on one network's evening newscast focused on a small group of suburban men who met regularly to discuss their inability to express emotions freely. Embracing each other at the end of the session, something that once would have been unthinkable, they stressed how their behavior had been conditioned by media images. Men were supposed to be self-sufficient and tough, something like the rich entrepreneurs in Mr. Spelling's ''Hart to Hart'' and ''Matt Houston.'' An appeal was made to tone down the distorting heroics on prime time. Television does seem to be paying attention. The hero of CBS's forthcoming ''Wolf,'' for instance, is a former narcotics detective who, after being set up to take the blame for a botched drug bust, disappears for two years. Returning to San Francisco, he has cut his hair, shaved his beard and sets about trying to salvage a relationship with his difficult father, an old-fashioned Italian immigrant. Played by Jack Scalia, Tony Wolf (born Lupo) is still tough but now more tolerant and thoughtful. He buys back his dad's fishing boat from the finance company. He acts as sympathetic referee between his old friend Connie, a protective mother, and her frisky teen-age daughter. In case anyone misses the point, Connie spells it out, telling Tony: ''You've changed. I didn't like it so much when you were a cop - all tough guy and no heart.'' Then there's ''Top of the Hill,'' also coming to CBS. This is from the Stephen J. Cannell production factory, which, unlike Mr. Spelling's, specializes in quirky, offbeat concepts, from ''The Rockford Files'' to ''Wiseguy,'' that stay curiously in tune with the changing times. The new series stars William Katt as a surfer-turned-Congressman who moves with his ideals to Washington only to find ''people with problems, people who don't get satisfaction from municipal, state or Federal authorities.'' Thrown into the winner-take-all arena of politics, he will realize that ''the world is full of compromises and contrasts - you just have to make the best deals you can.'' Here, then, is yet another, considerably less-comforting version of the American dream. All of which is not to say | FOR TV, IT'S OUT OF THE TUXEDO AND BACK TO REALITY |
264285_0 | LEAD: The Soviet Union has scaled back its nuclear testing program, possibly to ease concerns of Soviet citizens that the blasts are contaminating the environment, Bush Administration officials say. The Soviet Union has scaled back its nuclear testing program, possibly to ease concerns of Soviet citizens that the blasts are contaminating the environment, Bush Administration officials say. Moscow has conducted three underground nuclear tests this year, about half the number conducted in a similar period last year, Government specialists said. The last test was in February. The cutback in nuclear testing, which was first reported in The Washington Times on Thursday, follows protests from a Soviet environmental group in Kazakhstan about the release of radiation at the Soviet test site in Semipalatinsk in that region. The group has asserted that radiation leaks have endangered people living nearby. Responding to such concerns, the Soviet Prime Minister, Nikolai I. Ryzhkov, said last month that the Soviet Government planned to reduce the number and size of tests conducted at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test range. Concern Over Venting Mr. Ryzhkov did not provide details of the steps that would be taken. A Soviet Embassy spokesman here did not respond to a request for comment. Soviet testing procedures are generally thought by Western experts to be less stringent than those used by the United States. Washington has repeatedly complained that the Soviet Union has ''vented'' or released radioactive debris during nuclear tests, in violation of a 1963 agreement banning atmospheric testing. Some American officials speculated that the Soviet Union may now be taking new steps to guard against the release of radioactive debris and that this might be slowing its testing. ''The absence of testing for several months may be related to concerns about the environment.'' an Administration specialist said. ''It is expensive and time-consuming to do it right.'' Spending Constraints Cited Another Administration official speculated that the cutback in testing may be part of a larger effort to curtail military spending. American specialists did not detect any excessive levels of radiation during their visits to the Semipalatinsk test site last year as part of a Soviet-American experiment on measuring the size of underground nuclear blasts. But the Soviet testing program at Semipalatinsk, one of two test sites in the Soviet Union, has been the focus of protests in Kazakhstan. Tests are also carried out on the polar island of Novaya Zemlya. Olzhas Suleimenov, a | Soviets Cut Back Nuclear Testing As Hazards Become a Local |
264283_1 | land, the jobs, the food. The issue has raised tensions between secular authorities favoring birth control and some religious leaders opposing it as contrary to the Islamic faith, and has caused differences within Islam itself. ''We increase by about one million and a half every year,'' President Hosni Mubarak said recently. ''It threatens to choke all our efforts in all fields and quashes all hope of growth, production and development.'' Growing populations that outstrip resources are a problem throughout the third world, bringing the same problems of deprivation. In Egypt, the growth rate, officially put at 2.7 percent, is not the highest in the world. But the population is growing in an unusually tight geographic straitjacket: only 4 percent of the country's land surface, along the ribbon of the Nile and the green fan of its delta, can be cultivated. While the birth rate remains high, the death rate is falling and the booming population, now estimated at 53 million, crams onto the land, building new homes where once there were crops. The country has become the world's largest importer of wheat flour to feed a population whose staple is bread. Half of the country's food is imported, at a cost of $5 billion a year, contributing to Egypt's foreign debt of $44 billion. ''If people did not have 8, 9 or 12 children, there would not be a food problem,'' President Mubarak said on another occasion. Aid From the U.S. The United States alone provides hundreds of million of dollars in credits and food aid each year, complementing that assistance with a 10-year aid program worth more than $100 million to support the Government's family planning campaign. The campaign, to which other Western countries also contribute, is intended to reduce the number of children per family to 3.5 from 4.5 by providing wider services for the distribution of contraceptives and raising public awareness. The nation remains on the brink of disaster, and trying to pull back from it, the Egyptian leader has said, is like trying to ''budge an iron door weighing 100 tons.'' Yet some see glimmers of hope. In the late 1970's, said Nabil Osman, a former diplomat who heads the information campaign to persuade Egyptians to have fewer children, about one-fifth of Egyptian women used contraception. The newest official statistic, which emerged last year, is 38 percent. Over the last 20 years, the average family size | Egyptian Population Growth Strains Resources and Society |
262951_0 | LEAD: To the Editor: To the Editor: Your Streetscapes article about 780 West End Avenue on May 14, headed ''Making a Tall Building Taller,'' was of particular interest to the Friends of Terra Cotta/New York State because the New York State Council on the Arts and the J. M. Kaplan Fund have recently provided us with funding for a research and publication project on the Blum Brothers. The article begins to help correct the years of anonymity these fine architects have suffered. You will be glad to know that the tenants of 780 West End Avenue were able to save pieces of the terra cotta cornice stripped off the building. Some time in the future they would like to replicate it and remove the awful band of stucco that now encircles the building in its place. We look forward to ''the Blums's unusual experiment'' being restored to its fully intact state once again. SUSAN TUNICK Manhattan The writer is president of Friends of Terra Cotta/New York State. | 780 West End Ave. |
262892_0 | LEAD: WITH as amorphous a subject as entrepreneurial studies, what better way is there to house an institute for it than in a structure that is partly a Greek temple with Doric porticos and partly a basilica with arched, door-sized niches instead of windows? And what better material to sheathe it in than Styrofoam carved to look like limestone and surfaced with something call WITH as amorphous a subject as entrepreneurial studies, what better way is there to house an institute for it than in a structure that is partly a Greek temple with Doric porticos and partly a basilica with arched, door-sized niches instead of windows? And what better material to sheathe it in than Styrofoam carved to look like limestone and surfaced with something call Dryvit? Anyway, for better or worse, this is what has been done on the Florham-Madison campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University for the George Rothman Institute of Entrepreneurial Studies. And for the art department, too, since half the building is occupied by the Phyllis Rothman Gallery. The institute is billed as the first of its kind at the university, but it gets some competition from the recently completed center at the College of New Rochelle, in New York. Under this roof are a communications school and a theater as well as an art gallery. So there the Rothman Institute stands in its bucolic New Jersey setting, stubby looking on the outside, but spacious on the inside and graced by a pitched roof of glass to boot. Under the direction of Prof. Arie Galles, the art department's chairman, the gallery is staging its third show, ''American Icon.'' No other nation cultivates its icons as self-consciously as the United States, maybe because its population is being continually renewed by infusions from abroad. Professor Galles, who arrived here from Eastern Europe some 30 years ago, says as much in his introduction to the show, and while the nine artists he has chosen seem as American as entrepreneurial studies, they bear him out. They do so with sentimentality, satire and seriousness or a mixture of all three - the verdict is up to the viewer. Reginald Case pays his respects to a still fairly new icon, Marilyn Monroe, by enclosing a photograph that does not much look like her in a circular frame adorned with bric-a-brac. He does the same to a small image of the Statue of | Celebrating the New World |
263898_3 | out the early gains and leaving production in 1988 below 1979 levels. Exports were hit especially hard, with output of traditional products (coffee, cotton, meat, bananas) down 40 percent and manufactured goods for the Central American market down 84 percent. Imports are now four times greater than exports. Last year's $579 million foreign-trade deficit, largely financed by loans from the Soviet bloc, represented one-third of total national income. Poorest in the Region According to the Swedish-financed report, Nicaragua had a per-capita output of about $300 at official exchange rates in 1988, making it the poorest country in the region and one of the poorest in the world. And writing in March, before the latest economic crisis, the authors predicted that austerity measures needed to contain inflation to triple digits this year would cut the output per person by another 8 percent. For Mr. Gorostiaga, the explanation for the relatively slow economic recovery after the revolution is simple. ''We tried to do too much, too fast,'' he said, and the statistics support that contention. Government spending, much of it for ambitious health and education programs, rose from the pre-revolution level of 11 percent of national output to 32 percent in 1982. The payoff: illiteracy was cut from 88 percent to 50, while the infant mortality rate was reduced by half. Since 1983, Mr. Gorostiaga said, the war with the American-backed guerrillas known as contras has forced the Government to divert about 20 percent of national output to the military, much of which might have been invested productively. An American trade embargo imposed in May 1985 compounded the problem, severing Nicaragua from its traditional export markets and forcing it to use expensive smuggling operations through Panama and Canada to obtain spare parts for American machinery. Agriculture Devastated The American-sponsored cutoff of access to loans from the International Monetary Fund also deprived Nicaragua of liquid assets and short-term trade credits. According to the report, half of this year's prospective exports are already pledged as collateral against this years imports. And last year, Mr. Gorostiaga said, Hurricane Joan did $800 million damage to an economy with only a billion-dollar domestic product. But that is only part of the story, asserted Mr. Mayorga, the business school economist. He said that agriculture, which represents the bulk of the productive capacity of the Nicaraguan economy, has been devastated by Government meddling. Price controls, intended to make food | Economic Watch; For Sandinistas, Newest Enemy Is Hard Times |
263909_0 | LEAD: For the first time the Federal Government has approved open-air test spraying of a genetically engineered virus as an insecticide, the Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday. For the first time the Federal Government has approved open-air test spraying of a genetically engineered virus as an insecticide, the Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday. Researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research in Ithaca, N.Y., said the test would be a critical step in developing an organic pesticide as an alternative to chemicals. Fred Betz, a biologist at the Environmental Protection Agency, said no genetically engineered virus has previously been approved for release as an insecticide in the United States. But a genetically altered virus has been tested in the field by inoculating animals, and several genetically altered bacteria have been tested. The field test would use cabbage plants infested with cabbage looper larvae at Cornell University's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y., beginning later this month, researchers said. Researchers say the test is important because it could remove one of the toughest hurdles they face in their quest to develop a viral pesticide that works as quickly as chemicals. The goal is to cripple the virus so that it does not linger in the field after it does its work, scientists said. A short-lived virus would pave the way for further genetic alterations to make the disease more deadly. The final goal is a fast-acting virus that dies soon after it leaves the pest's body. Could Cut Use of Chemicals ''If the test's done right, we're on the road at least toward putting a dent in some of the chemical pesticides we have to use now,'' said H. Alan Wood, the virologist heading the effort for Boyce Thompson. The E.P.A. has recommended allowing the test without a permit that would restrict it, said Mr. Betz, who is overseeing the test. ''We didn't foresee any risk to human health or to other organisms or the environment in general,'' Mr. Betz said. He said the virus to be tested does not afflict people. But some environmentalists say the agency's method of assessing the test is flawed. The Foundation for Economic Trends, a Washington environmental group, has opposed all releases of such organisms since 1983, when it filed suit to stop a California company from testing an altered bacterium. ''When someone says they don't see any problems with an | Test of Genetically Altered Pesticide Allowed |
263967_1 | effort to take the lead on environmental issues. A9 China accused the Voice of America of lying about an incident last month in which Chinese troops opened fire on a diplomatic compound. It was the New China News Agency that accused the radio station. A8 No further steps to isolate China should be taken now, the United States and Japan have agreed. The two countries will ''wait and see'' how the Beijing authorities behave. A8 The Sandinistas' economic ability is in considerable doubt. Per-capita output has fallen by one-fourth since 1980, while average living standards have been cut by more than 60 percent, a study says. A6 To save Bangladesh from flooding, the World Bank is mobilizing an international force of scientists and aid officials to draft a comprehensive, long-term rescue plan. A3 NATIONAL A12-19, B5 Oliver L. North was fined $150,000 for his crimes in the Iran-contra affair but the Federal district judge declined to send him to prison, saying a jail term ''would only harden your misconceptions'' about service. A1 Jesse Jackson may be a candidate for Mayor of Washington and Mr. Jackson's allies are seeking ways to ease the incumbent, Marion S. Barry Jr., out of the race. A1 Domestic vehicle sales plunged 19 percent in late June, confirming recent signs that the economy has slowed. Some experts said the decline did not necessarily signal an economic downturn. D1 Severe Streptococcus infections have been detected in four western states, raising fears that some extremely dangerous forms of the bacteria may be appearing in America. A12 Athletes are going back to school. De Paul University in Chicago is one of 37 colleges that have joined in a program to persuade athletes to finish their education. A12 To enact more abortion restrictions, Gov. Bob Martinez of Florida, an ardent opponent of abortion, announced that he would call a special session of the State Legislature. A16 To protest the abortion decision by the Supreme Court, the president of the National Organization for Women announced plans for a rally in Washington at the end of October. A16 Job-seekers have invaded Valdez, lured by the high paying work of wiping rocks, hosing beaches and skimming the oil spilled off Alaska by the Exxon Valdez. A19 The dollar dropped percipitously against all major currencies, falling back below the ceilings believed set for it by the United States and its economic allies. D1 WASHINGTON | No Headline |
265959_0 | LEAD: A study has concluded that nothing peculiar to the Meadowlands Sports Complex poses an increased risk of cancer to athletes, fans or employees. A study has concluded that nothing peculiar to the Meadowlands Sports Complex poses an increased risk of cancer to athletes, fans or employees. The study, released today, was begun nearly two years ago after cancer was diagnosed in four members of the New York Giants. The cancer cases, which led to the deaths of two of the football players, raised concerns that health dangers might be posed by the toxic waste sites, radio towers, marshes and landfills that surround the 750-acre complex. But Dr. Frederick B. Cohen, director of medical oncology at Newark Beth Israel Hospital, said today that the players' cancers ''had begun long before they came to work the for the Giants.'' He called the cancers a coincidence. Cancer Incidence No Higher Dr. Cohen was one of five medical and technical experts who examined the medical histories of all 7,889 people who have worked at the complex since it opened in 1976, including the 3,500 current employees. They also tested the levels of volatile organic compounds, like benzene, in the air, and the level of electromagnetic radiation on the site from nearby radio towers. The study found the incidence of cancer among employees to be no higher than in the general population and uncovered no dangerous levels of chemical carcinogens or radiation anywhere on the site. In fact, levels of electromagnetic radiation were higher on the New Jersey Turnpike nearby. Robert E. Mulcahy, the president of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, said the deep concern about possible environmental hazards ''made it imperative that we conduct a credible study.'' He said, ''It cost $225,000 but if it puts peoples' minds at ease, especially our employees, it will be well worth it.'' The cluster of cancer cases among Giants players began in 1980, when Dan Lloyd, a linebacker, was found to have a malignant lymphoma. He recovered and is now coaching high school football in California. Causes Still Unclear Doug Kotar, a running back, died of an inoperable brain tumor in 1983. John Tuggle, a running back, died in 1986 of angiosarcoma, a rare blood vessel cancer. In 1987, Hodgkin's disease was diagnosed in offensive tackle Karl Nelson, but he is doing well, Dr. Cohen said. Mr. Nelson is now a coach with the | Athletes' Cancers a Coincidence, Study of Meadowlands Site Finds |
266698_1 | dioxide produced by the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil. The combination, many scientists believe, is making the greenhouse effect more intense, future global warming inevitable and major climatic disruptions more likely. But growing trees absorb carbon dioxide, storing the carbon part of the gas and releasing the rest as oxygen. Foresters and environmentalists therefore see large-scale tree planting not only as one way to head off global warming but also, if carried out on a crash basis, as a possible emergency solution if warming should seem about to get out of hand. At the moment, the foresters face an uphill battle to overcome the widespread destruction of tropical forests taking place in Brazil, Indonesia and other developing countries. Experts are nevertheless working hard to find effective ways to stimulate the growth of new forests in every part of the world. The activity is taking place on a variety of fronts. In one of the first concrete actions, the American Forestry Association, a citizens' conservation organization, has undertaken a national campaign aimed at planting 100 million new trees in American cities and towns by 1992. Although that is just a tiny fraction of all the trees in the country, proponents of the effort see it as an important beginning. Foresters are pressing experiments in farming dense stands of fast-growing trees that suck up carbon dioxide at the maximum rate. Environmentalists are advancing an ''offset'' strategy, in which industrial companies would pledge to plant enough trees to absorb the amount of carbon dioxide produced by new plants that burn fossil fuels. One such arrangement, widely viewed as a model, has already been undertaken by a Connecticut company. Over the last 18 months or so, economists and ecologists have stepped up their studies of which approaches might work and which will not, what is practical and what is fanciful. Bills now before Congress seek to promote reforestation both domestically and abroad, and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency has undertaken an extensive study of how best to go about the job. The task is not as simple and straightforward as it may seem. Most possible courses of action are fraught with questions, difficulties and uncertainties. The expanding research efforts are trying to answer some questions, but many of the difficulties may prove intractable. In the third world, for instance, economic and population pressures force millions of people to cut forests for | To Halt Climate Change, Scientists Try Trees |
265276_0 | LEAD: An article in Science Times yesterday about possible health hazards of electromagnetic fields misstated the amount the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry group, is spending this year for research on the issue. It is $5.5 million, not $5.5 billion. An article in Science Times yesterday about possible health hazards of electromagnetic fields misstated the amount the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry group, is spending this year for research on the issue. It is $5.5 million, not $5.5 billion. | Corrections |
265283_0 | LEAD: THIS time of year at the Union Square Greenmarket is the most exciting for me because of the arrival of Jersey tomatoes and corn picked the day it is sold. Jersey tomatoes are the only commercially produced tomatoes worth eating, and corn any older isn't worth the calories. THIS time of year at the Union Square Greenmarket is the most exciting for me because of the arrival of Jersey tomatoes and corn picked the day it is sold. Jersey tomatoes are the only commercially produced tomatoes worth eating, and corn any older isn't worth the calories. But what is even more interesting about the market, which is open Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays year-round, is the number of people now selling organic food or advertising their efforts to reduce the amount of pesticides they put on their crops. What is sprayed on food has become of such interest to many people who shop here and at other Greenmarkets in New York City that in a few weeks standardized signs will be put up indicating how the crops were raised: conventionally, completely organic (without any chemical pesticides or fertilizer), without fungicides and pesticides but with chemical fertilizers, or some other combination of chemicals. One New Jersey farm is even labeling its produce ''transition organic,'' as it awaits state certification of its organic produce. Oc-Lin Farm in Monroeville, N.J., has been growing several vegetables organically for two years, but it takes three years of growing without chemical pesticides to earn certification. Mary Stiles, who owns the farm with her husband, Frank, said half of their 200 acres is devoted to organic farming; on the rest, they are using the Integrated Pest Management system. In this system, chemicals are used only when necessary, not routinely. Why organic? ''Because the demand is here,'' Mrs. Stiles said. ''At the end of this year we are going to decide whether to go all the way with it or not.'' Mrs. Stiles said they had to raise prices after the switch to organic methods. But a comparision with a stand just across the aisle showed that the organic and the conventionally raised summer squash, zucchini and Kirby cucumbers cost the same. Around the corner, Frank Cole, one owner of the Wondervue farm in Lebanon, N.J., said the farm was using Integrated Pest Management. His red new potatoes and scallions were grown without insecticides or fungicides but with | Fresh Produce Bringing Fresh Choices |
262839_0 | LEAD: Alarming amounts of acid rain and ozone have been found for the first time over the rain forests of central Africa. These are not industrial pollutants, as in the United States and Europe, but stem from the annual burning of thousands of square miles of grassland by African farmers. This may be yet another serious threat to the world's dwindling tropical forests, and a spur to the feared climatic warming known as the greenhouse effect. Alarming amounts of acid rain and ozone have been found for the first time over the rain forests of central Africa. These are not industrial pollutants, as in the United States and Europe, but stem from the annual burning of thousands of square miles of grassland by African farmers. This may be yet another serious threat to the world's dwindling tropical forests, and a spur to the feared climatic warming known as the greenhouse effect. Thousands of fires are set to clear the Amazon forest, fires which Brazilian scientists estimate are the source of one-tenth of the global production of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas. A team of West German scientists now reports that burning of the African savannas generates three times more gases than all the fires set in South America. These include the gases that create acid rain and ozone, as well as carbon dioxide. The scientists estimate that burning and the natural decay of vegetation produce a third of the world's carbon dioxide. The rest comes from burning fossil fuels. It's too soon to know if the acid rain and ozone will destroy African forests. The levels detected are dismayingly high, but the past pattern of exposure is unknown, and possibly the trees are in part accustomed to such toxins. The savanna fires do not directly destroy the forest, unlike the fires in Brazil, which are deliberately set to clear the land. A mere 0.6 percent of Amazonia was deforested in 1975, a horrifying 12 percent - 600,000 square kilometers - by 1988. Most of the destruction is prompted by cattle-ranching, yet Brazil derives almost no real benefit from this assault on its national patrimony. Cattle-ranching in Amazonia is uneconomic. Without heavy government subsidies and tax credits, almost all ranches would fail. Brazil's attempt to develop Amazonia, partly for reasons of national security, is a misadventure. The Government would save money by canceling its many subsidies. Elsewhere the remedies are | The Global Bonfire |
262778_3 | document differences in mathematics and verbal abilities. ''Girls were higher in verbal abilities and boys, starting in junior high school, were better in quantitative abilities,'' Dr. Jacklin recalled in an interview. But now, she added, ''those differences have been diminishing.'' The most comprehensive recent analysis was issued in April by the College Board, a nonprofit organization that sponsors achievement and aptitude tests used by 2,600 schools, colleges and universities. The report reviewed more than 200 studies, conducted largely in the 1980's, including reports from 17 of the best-known tests, such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test, the College Board achievement tests, the Armed Forces Qualification Tests, the National Assessment of Educational Progress and various graduate school admission tests. In tests of verbal ability, the researchers found that ''the slight historical advantage enjoyed by females appears to have disappeared; with few exceptions, the S.A.T. being the most prominent, male and female performance on verbal measures is virtually identical.'' 'Women Are Improving' In mathematical tests, they added, ''females have gained on but not equaled males in performance on some tests of mathematics ability and achievement, accompanied by increases in their participation in mathematics and their interest and self-confidence in that domain. With the exception of some limited domains of spatial ability and performance at the top levels of mathematics achievement, woman are improving their position relative to men.'' Dr. Gita Z. Wilder, a research scientist at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, who was the chief author of the College Board report, called the gap between male and female performance in verbal abilities ''minuscule,'' saying, ''It's not in any way significant.'' For example, in the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which measures academic achievement of nationally representative groups of students, 9-year-old girls did significantly better on verbal tests than 9-year-old boys in 1971, scoring 12 points higher on the test, Dr. Wilder reported. The N.A.E.P. tests are scored on a scale of 0 to 500. The boys gradually caught up until, in 1984, boys and girls had essentially no difference in their scores. The S.A.T.'s have always been unusual in that they showed an insignificant verbal gap between male and female performance, Dr. Wilder said. In her analysis of scores on the verbal portion of the S.A.T., which is scored on a range of 200 to 800women's scores went from 5 points higher than men's to 10 points lower over the last 20 | Gender Gap in Aptitude Tests Is Narrowing, Experts Find |
262669_0 | LEAD: To the Editor: To the Editor: Your May 23 editorial on sugar put the fundamental issues clearly and succinctly. But John C. Kingery, former associate general counsel in the U.S. Trade Representative's Office, makes a number of misleading points in his June 3 letter in connection with Australia's complaint under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade against the United States sugar regime. To set the record straight: Australia is one of the most efficient sugar producers in the world, enabling it to export much of its production - all without resort to production or export subsidies. That is why Australia, of its own volition, has recently removed its longstanding ban on sugar imports and replaced it with a tariff that will fall to 2.6 cents a pound in 1991. That has the advantage of transparency. And it will not be anywhere near sufficient to stop fairly priced imports if Australia ceases to be an efficient sugar producer. The United States for its part severely limits sugar imports by imposing quotas. Certainly others - notably the European Community - have equally damaging regimes. But that is no comfort to those unsubsidized sugar producers like Australia, to whom the U.S. sugar policy has been enormously detrimental and who see U.S. sugar producers deriving as much as 78 percent (the U.S.D.A. figure) of their income from Government assistance of one sort and another. Unsurprisingly, a GATT panel found U.S. sugar quotas to be an unfair trading practice. We expect that the panel's report will be accepted soon and that the U.S. will move quickly to meet its obligation to reform its sugar import arrangements. That will help to reduce the 2-to-1 bilateral trade balance in America's favor. Just as important, it will help Australia to work even more closely with the United States in the Uruguay Round to bring about an improved international trading system under the GATT that advantages everybody. MICHAEL J. COOK Ambassador of Australia Washington, June 14, 1989 | Australia's Sugar Trade Hurt by U.S. Quotas |
262708_1 | a tanker that went aground off the Alaskan coast three months ago. Questions are based on news reports in The Times this week. Answers appear on page 46. 1. A televised taped interview of this man may have international ramifications. Who is he and what are the circumstances? 2. Scientists said the oil spill from a tanker that went aground in Narragansett Bay would be inherently less disastrous to the environment than the one from a tanker that went aground off the Alaskan coast three months ago. Why? 3. Donald J. Trump, the developer, offered a startling plan for rezoning part of his Upper West Side property to allow him to build larger structures. What did he propose? 4. A reason that even the most potent cancer treatments do not work, according to research, is that they are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the structure of solid tumors. What is the misunderstanding? 5. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain found herself making a crucial compromise that allowed a European meeting to end successfully. What meeting was it and what was the compromise? 6. Responding to recent White House policy decisions, the Rev. Jesse Jackson suggested that the Bush Administration was placing a higher priority on protecting the flag than on the rights it represents. To what was he referring? 7. Lawyers for Pete Rose, manager of the Cincinnati Reds, used this as their ''smoking gun.'' What is it and what were the circumstances? 8. More than half a million people demonstrated around the nation to commemorate the 20th anniversary of an event that set the stage for a national movement. Identify the event and the movement. 9. In California, state officials exposed a fraud in the vineyards. What was the fraud? 10. In contrast to the attention they paid recent events in Beijing, Western governments have virtually ignored the plight of earlier pro-democracy student protesters who fled a military crackdown last September. What students are they and what is their plight? 11. Democrats quickly denounced as partisan a proposal by President Bush to eliminate contributions by most political action committees. What is at issue? 12. According to a confidential study based on formerly secret data, the once-vibrant economy of a Latin American nation has shrunk so much in the last decade that may rank as the Western Hemisphere's poorest, What nation is it and what does the study recommend? | STAURDAY NEWS QUIZ |
295188_0 | LEAD: To the Editor: To the Editor: Unchecked population growth threatens the earth's environment, as Prof. Richard N. Gardner states in his eloquent plea for United States and United Nations support of family planning programs (Op-Ed, Sept. 22). Unprecedented demands on the world's resources can lead to hunger, violence and catastrophic climate change. But in much of the world, couples yearn for large families to provide financial support and old-age care, and because religion and tradition encourage them to bear sons. Developing countries should emulate Singapore, with a secure national retirement fund and a family planning program that brought population growth dramatically down. Otherwise, our advice will go unheeded, and our contraceptives will stay on the shelves. PEGGY J. PRINTZ Seattle, Oct. 2, 1989 | Singapore's Example |
290864_2 | of so much paper. ''All this will just be thrown out,'' said several mothers. ''You're just taking it because it's there!'' one teacher said to his students. Concrete Turns Into Crumbs Still, there was much that impressed the students at the exposition, the second to be held by the county. Many came away wide-eyed from a huge truck called ''Eager Beaver'' that was manufactured by the General Engines Company of New Jersey, Texas and Florida and distributed by Trius. The truck had automated compartments for the breakdown of separated trash. Groups stood transfixed in front of a video demonstrating a ''comprehensive waste-reduction system'' called the ''Auger-Shredder.'' Like some futuristic Cookie Monster, the machine made quick crumbs of a 55-gallon drum filled with concrete. It is manufactured by Komar Industries of Ohio and is also distributed by Trius. There were apples to eat (no one inquired about the chemical Alar), and one woman showed off a handsome quilt made of recycled neckties. The large bales of market-ready crushed aluminum cans, corrugated cardboard and plastic put together by Municipal Recylcing Associates of Elmsford struck many of the students as awesome. Some giggled when an exhibitor from the White Plains-based Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester suggested having worms as pets. Worms put in a box eat scraps like orange peels and turn it all into compost, he explained. A Carpet of Soda Bottles Some students liked the carpet made of recycled plastic soda bottles, produced by Napcor, a nonprofit trade association based in Charlotte, N.C. Many of the children were still adding to their paper collections when it was time to return to the Little Theater. ''I want some more business cards!'' said Sarah Moureau, another fourth grader at the Mamaroneck Avenue School, although she couldn't say why. ''It's like shopping!'' her classmate, Heather Peyton, exclaimed. Heather said she would put all her papers on her shelf at home and her friend, Alyson Trust, insisted that she herself was going ''to read the stuff.'' Recyclus Lands on Stage If the concept of recycling was still abstract, Recyclus brought it down to earth - literally - for many of the students. Billed as ''a superhero from the Planet Refuse'' and portrayed by a Brooklyn-based performer and educator, John E. C. Doyle, the character landed with a thud on the stage and pleaded with the cheering audience to recyle before it was too late. Recyclus | Schoolchildren Ponder Over Where the Garbage Goes |
291113_5 | the plant poses no environmental hazard. Connecticut and Rhode Island environmental officials agreed, after analyzing data on the emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides and hydrocarbons from a smaller incinerator that Oxford operates in Modesto, Calif. The Sterling plant has ''complied with all the state and Federal requirements, and has probably gone beyond those,'' said Mark M. Hultman, an air pollution control engineer with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. Indeed, before the department issued permits for air emissions, solid waste and water discharge this summer, the agency required Oxford to agree to install $2 million in additional downwind monitoring equipment to protect the reservoir. Oxford officials argue that the plant provides an environmentally sound answer to tire disposal. Right now, there are an estimated 2 billion discarded tires in this country. Recycling efforts have been slow and with landfill space around the country shrinking, experts have been searching for a safe and efficient disposal method. Trapping Gray in Gray Smoke Using technology introduced at its two-year-old California plant, Oxford plans to install a pollution-control system in the incinerator here that would trap three major pollutants that could be recycled. Steel from belted tires would be sold to scrap metal dealers. Fly ash - the gray in gray smoke, heavily laden with zinc oxide - would be captured by a large vacuum cleaner and sold to zinc smelters. Finally, scrubbers to control air emissions would spray lime on the emissions. The lime would combine with the pollutant sulfur to form gypsum, a building material. Furnaces burning at temperatures between 2,000 and 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit would incinerate the tires without any noticeable smoke or odor, state officials said. ''I don't feel like we're creating problems for our neighbors,'' said Mr. Jordan, who visited Oxford's tire-burning plant in California. ''There's no black smoke. There's no smell. It's clean.'' Despite assurances from environmental experts, many Connecticut and Rhode Island residents and officials remain wary. ''Tire-burning is an unproven technology,'' said Allan Rydberg, president of the Concerned Citizens of Sterling, a community group that opposes the incinerator and urges more research into tire recycling. 'Only Time Will Tell' ''The bottom line is that we're still going to get a lot of emissions from the plant and only time will tell what impact that will have on the people of Rhode Island,'' said Anna F. Prager, senior policy analyst for the Governor, Edward D. DiPrete. | Town Fights With Neighbors Over Burning of Tons of Tires |
287425_2 | and demand grows for services like toll-free 800 numbers, computer-data lines, facsimile transmission, international calling and private telephone networks. Industry analysts expect the market to grow at double-digit rates for the next five years. However, telephone companies have installed a variety of automated and digital technologies in their networks that have eliminated a large number of lower-level positions. Providers of cellular service are expanding their networks, installing digital technology to accommodate the expected growth in subscribers. That has created a continually growing need for people in the technical as well as marketing and administrative areas. Most in demand are people experienced with paging, trunking and cellular systems, according to Mr. Jacobson, who said that employers were seeking installers, repairers, engineers and service managers. The demand is mainly in major metropolitan areas but cellular providers in medium-size markets are also looking for qualified people, he added. ''The market is expanding so rapidly that we have a dire need for design engineers and technical people in radio frequency who can deal with congestion problems from the increase in cellular phone traffic,'' said Mark A. Hickey, director of human resources for Pacific Telesis Group, the regional Bell phone company that serves the West Coast and owns the Pactel Corporation, one of the biggest players in the cellular industry. Mr. Hickey said that a college degree was not a major requirement for employment in the cellular industry. More important, he said, is ''a good understanding of the workings of the technology,'' which applies to those seeking jobs in any specialty. A cellular system transmits telephone calls on radio frequencies and relays the calls over telephone wires. Each service area is divided into cells - hence the name cellular - of up to 16 miles across. As a car moves from one place to another the phone conversation is handed off from one cell to another. The best employment opportunities are in densely populated cities like New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Houston and Phildelphia, where demand for mobile phone service is greatest. A.T.&T., the nation's largest long-distance carrier, expects to hire about 2,000 college graduates in the next year, mainly in the engineering and technical fields. Howard Burlingame, A.T.&T.'s director of human resources, said that although the giant telephone company had been consolidating its operations since it spun off the regional Bell phone companies in 1984, it was still looking for product managers, systems | If Your Line Is Cellular, Give a Ring |
287228_0 | LEAD: Beginning in 1801, when Greece was still part of the Ottoman Empire, the British Ambassador to Constantinople, the seventh Earl of Elgin, acquired from Turkish authorities much of the sculptural ornament of the Parthenon in Athens. Known as the Elgin Marbles, the sculptures are generally recognized as the most sublime expression of the Classical Greek style of the fifth century B.C. Beginning in 1801, when Greece was still part of the Ottoman Empire, the British Ambassador to Constantinople, the seventh Earl of Elgin, acquired from Turkish authorities much of the sculptural ornament of the Parthenon in Athens. Known as the Elgin Marbles, the sculptures are generally recognized as the most sublime expression of the Classical Greek style of the fifth century B.C. and are among the prized exhibits of the British Museum. They also remain an intrinsic part of the Parthenon, the great temple of Athena that has become an icon not only of Greek nationhood but of Western civilization. Since the removal, there have been passionate calls for their return to Greece by the Greek Government and others. Christopher Hitchens's IMPERIAL SPOILS: The Curious Case of the Elgin Marbles (Hill & Wang, $19.95) is both a history of the controversy and a plea for the return of the sculptures. A number of Lord Elgin's contemporaries - from Lord Byron to members of Parliament - opposed the acquisition on much the same grounds advanced by restitutionists today: that Turks had no right to allow Greek treasures to be carried off, that Lord Elgin overstepped even the authority given him by the Turks, that archeological remains are best appreciated in situ. Despite the title, Mr. Hitchens, a columnist for The Nation, treats the acquisition more as an ill-considered use of influence than as imperialistic looting, and he views any eventual return as an act of generosity. His account, full of colorful characters and written with wit, is entertaining as well as provocative. IN SHORT: NONFICTION | THE GLORY THAT WAS GREECE'S |
287609_0 | LEAD: Making his first official visit to the Vatican, the Archbishop of Canterbury prayed alongside Pope John Paul II today as the two spiritual leaders discussed future reunification of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. Making his first official visit to the Vatican, the Archbishop of Canterbury prayed alongside Pope John Paul II today as the two spiritual leaders discussed future reunification of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. Both agreed that the Pope should have primacy in any reunited church, but they seemed to differ on the nature of his role. The Archbishop, the Most Rev. Robert Runcie, implied that he envisioned more of a figurehead primate who acts in the name of Christian unity, while John Paul indicated the papacy could not become merely a symbolic office. In any event, it was clear that for all of today's embraces and prayers, the two churches would not soon put an end to an often-venomous division that dates from 1534, when King Henry VIII broke with the Vatican after being denied a divorce. As has been the case for several years, a major obstacle to unity remains the ordination of women as priests and the consecration of women as bishops - a practice flatly rejected by the Catholic Church but permitted in the Anglican Communion, which has 70 million members worldwide, includ-ing 3 million Episcopalians in the United States. Last year, the Rev. Barbara C. Harris of Massachusetts became the first woman to be consecrated as an Episcopal bishop. Although he did not refer to this issue directly, John Paul seemed to have it in mind during his homily at vespers in the Church of St. Gregory the Great, near the Colosseum. ''We cannot but acknowledge,'' he said, ''that events in recent years have seriously aggravated the differences between us.'' Standing across the altar from the Pope, Dr. Runcie, too, suggested that some national churches within his spiritual domain may have gone too far. ''There must be bounds to legitimate diversity,'' he said. This is Dr. Runcie's first official journey to Rome and only the fourth to be made by an Archbishop of Canterbury since the Reformation. It is considered a return visit for a trip to Canterbury by John Paul in 1982, and the selection of the church for this evening's service was symbolic testament to both men's desire for closer relations. In the sixth century, as Pope Gregory | Anglican Head Prays With the Pope in Rome |
287424_4 | as industries decline or companies move some of these jobs overseas to countries with lower wages. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the biggest drop in job openings will be for electronic assemblers and electronic semiconductor processors, as more companies automate these jobs or subcontract them abroad. Other big drops will be in installers of telephone stations, metal and mining work, leather-products manufacturing and blast-furnace and steel-foundry operators. Educational requirements are rising in a broad range of jobs, Mr. Ehrenhalt said. ''Those who remain as tellers are being upgraded. They now are being seen as the primary sales force of the banking industry. A bank vice president told me that five years ago he hired 297 high school graduates and 3 college graduates, but in May he hired 150 college graduates and 150 high school graduates.'' Certain kinds of entry-level jobs that used to be steppingstones are being eliminated or transformed by automation. ''What does this do for the prospects of young black women, for whom clerical work was a prime avenue for middle-class jobs and status?'' Mr. Ehrenhalt said. ''The largest group coming in is the one with the most educational deficiencies.'' White non-Hispanics will still dominate the labor force and provide two-thirds of new entrants from now to the year 2,000, Mr. Fullerton said. But at the same time other white non-Hispanics will be retiring from the labor force, reducing their numbers by 5 or 6 percent, and the number of minorities will increase. As a result, for the first time more than half the net growth in the labor force will be from minority groups. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the labor force will increase over all by 17.8 percent between now and the year 2000. Hispanics will increase by 74.4 percent, Asians and other minorities by 71.2 percent and blacks by 28.8 percent. While many members of these groups have managed to acquire needed skills and move to successful careers, dropout rates are high and English ability low for many others, particularly low-income inner-city residents. The labor shortage that demographers predict for the 1990's will largely be for entry-level and junior positions, because the large baby-boom population is moving into mid-career and senior positions. This shortage means that companies will have to reach out to groups, and cope with problems, that they could overlook when they had more applicants than jobs. ''During the | In 1990's, What Price Scarce Labor? |
287432_1 | on the podium. ''It has been a joy to be here,'' declared Bishop Clarence C. Pope Jr. of Fort Worth, who heads the Episcopal Synod of America, a traditionalist group formed last June. Many church leaders feared that the group, led by six bishops and organized as a shadow version of the Episcopal Church itself, was the potential nucleus for a breakaway body. Amid applause, Bishop Pope was joined on the platform by Bishop David E. Johnson of Massachusetts, whose diocese elected Bishop Harris to assist him, and by the church's Presiding Bishop, Edmond L. Browning. When Bishop Browning opened the meeting Sept. 23, he said the debate over women's being priests and bishops was an issue not only within the 2.4-million-member Episcopal Church but also within the 70-million-member Anglican Communion worldwide. Of 27 national or regional churches that have roots in the Church of England and form the Anglican Communion, only the Episcopal Church has consecrated a woman as bishop. But the Anglican churches in Canada and New Zealand have announced their intention to follow suit, and 5 of the 27 churches ordain women to the priesthood. American Plan Endorsed The bishops who met in Philadelphia based their statement on the report of an international commission appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to study how, over a long period, Anglicans could maintain their unity while both respecting and debating their theological differences about women's ordination. The commission's report, approved last May by the heads of the 27 Anglican branches, endorsed an American plan that allows parishes rejecting the validity of ordaining women to request a male bishop rather than a female bishop for confirmations or visitations. But the report, as well as the American bishops, emphasized that the final authority on such requests should remain with the bishop of the local diocese. In contrast, the six bishops leading the Episcopal Synod of America have said that they would, if necessary, minister to traditionalist parishes even without the local bishop's permission, a step that could precipitate a definitive break with a vast majority of their fellow bishops. The House of Bishops' statement did not resolve this difference but appeared to reduce the chances that it would be put to the test. ''What we have done is simply to remove the siege mentality,'' Bishop Pope said. ''Our convictions are the same, but we've got an atmosphere now in which we can | Episcopalians Compromise on Women's Role |
287485_0 | LEAD: The Canadian sociologist Marshall McLuhan used to speak of a ''global village'' as the likely result of the electronic age. The Canadian sociologist Marshall McLuhan used to speak of a ''global village'' as the likely result of the electronic age. What Professor McLuhan didn't sufficiently take into account is how different interpretations of the shared news in various countries could assign quite different and divisive meanings to the identical set of facts. That is exactly what makes listening to shortwave broadcasts from abroad so stimulating and intellectually challenging - especially now, since the latest receivers greatly simplify shortwave receptions. Judging by the sales of shortwave receivers, a growing number of Americans roam the world by radio - a trend abetted by the frequent use of English in foreign broadcasts. Yet most audio fans are unfamiliar with this type of radio because stereo and shortwave radio are literally worlds apart. Stereo strives for tonal fidelity. Shortwave strives for maximum reach. The two aims are mutually incompatible. In FM broadcasting - the only kind of radio transmission that attains high fidelity - the reach is limited to about 100 miles at most. In shortwave broadcasting, fidelity is often limited to the level of a telephone with acute laryngitis. On top of that, shortwave reception is affected by so-called static - a curious misnomer since it refers to the effects of thunderstorms and other highly agitated and definitely unstatic happenings in the sky that make shortwave reception notoriously erratic. In fact, it is part of the thrill of shortwave listening to pull in some faraway stations through all the atmospheric turmoil. Yet shortwave listening has become a lot easier with the latest receivers featuring digital tuning. The chosen frequencies can be tapped out on buttons, like telephone numbers. This locks in the frequency with unerring accuracy and eliminates a lot of frustrating hunt-and-seek. Such receivers come in two basic types: portables that can be powered by either batteries or house current, or larger table models. Aside from their use in home listening, the portables make interesting travel companions, while the larger (and usually more expensive) table models are more adept at pulling in weak stations. Several excellent models of the portable kind have recently been introduced by Panasonic, Sony and Grundig. Among the smaller portables, Panasonic's RF-B65 ($279) offers a full complement of operating features, including a multifunction tuning system that includes | Shortwave Makes News |
287175_6 | the marker just before dark. We slip inside the reef to safety. In the morning, we see a circle of white water that marks the reef behind us, as if we've passed through a ring of fire to reach an island under a spell: Dravuni. ''TAKE OFF YOUR HAT,'' I urge as we climb out of the dinghy. ''Only a chief is allowed to wear a hat.'' I'm dressed in shorts because I have to jump into the water and help drag the dinghy up the sand, but the minute that the boat is secure, I tie a piece of cloth around my waist to make a skirt that reaches my ankles. I've been reading guidebooks. ''Damned if I'm going to get skin cancer,'' Barney answers, but takes off his hat when we get into the shade of the palm trees. As soon as we're spotted, a distinguished-looking man, who introduces himself in English as Maciu, directs us to the largest and least traditional house, built of cement blocks, with a floor covered in linoleum. A huge wooden yaqona bowl stands in a corner. We take off our shoes at the door, then enter and sit on the floor. More than a dozen men join us, sitting cross-legged in a circle, most of them wearing T-shirts with the traditional sulu, or skirt, worn knee length by men. I'm the only woman present, now wearing a skirt to my ankles and sitting with my legs properly tucked to the side; nevertheless I'm sexless, or I'm a third sex known as ''tourist,'' who was spotted a few minutes ago wearing shorts like a man and handling a boat like a man, and who now sits with the men in the presence of the chief, who has joined us. Barney lays the yaqona root on the floor so that the chief is free to accept or reject it, while Maciu begins to chant in Fijian. The men bow their heads. Maciu pauses; they clap once. Maciu continues much longer, and this time when he pauses, the chief and his circle clap five times. Maciu announces that the chief has accepted us and we're free to visit the village, but we're not to bother the chief's goats on a neighboring island. From this point on, the chief mingles with us freely, a man with a kingly, self-contained air whom I could have identified even | Sailing Fiji's Far Waters |
287539_0 | LEAD: IT all seemed very Italian, renting a house in Tuscany with my husband, our two sons and my mother, all five of us piling in and out of the car wherever we went. The two women collecting money for the use of the public toilets at Pisa's Campo dei Miracoli thought it was terrific. They laughed when my husband kept shelling out coins as we straggled in, one by one. IT all seemed very Italian, renting a house in Tuscany with my husband, our two sons and my mother, all five of us piling in and out of the car wherever we went. The two women collecting money for the use of the public toilets at Pisa's Campo dei Miracoli thought it was terrific. They laughed when my husband kept shelling out coins as we straggled in, one by one. ''Bella famiglia!'' they said approvingly. My husband felt he deserved their approval; he'd just taken Bruno and Leon (aged 7 and 11) up the Leaning Tower, and it was, he said - with no guardrails at the top and hordes of panting tourists disoriented by the climb - the most harrowing moment of the trip. In fact we all enjoyed getting credit for the minor adjustments it took to live and travel with three generations for as many weeks. But grace and patience come easily when one is living in paradise, which is how we felt almost constantly during our stay in a country house a mile from San Gimignano. Our plans for our stay in Italy had been vague; we knew only that we would spend three weeks there in June on our way home from Yugoslavia, where I'd been on a six-week Fulbright grant. We would meet my mother in Florence and travel together. A Belgian writer we met in Yugoslavia suggested that - the dollar being what it is - we would probably be better off renting a house than staying in hotels. And he gave us the phone number of a house he sometimes rented near San Gimignano, a walled medieval hill town between Florence and Siena. The number our Belgian friend gave us turned out to have been disconnected, but we went to San Gimignano anyway and within minutes found a rental agency where they said Yes, they had available houses - as if it were a simple business fact and not the answer | At Home in Tuscany |
287346_3 | 1980's. At the time, these power systems were judged to be too expensive because of the high cost of transporting propellants, materials and space structures into orbit from earth. Since Mr. Bush's recent speech, there appears to be an opportunity for the United States, and other nations, to develop a lunar base and the lunar resources necessary for large-scale projects like space-based power generating systems. The economic justification for using lunar resources instead of earth resources includes a significant reduction in transportation costs from the moon into an earth orbit, compared with launchings into orbit directly from the earth. Launching materials into an earth orbit from the moon would also alleviate the environmental impacts that would result from multiple earth launchings. THE development of space-based power systems will extend well into the next century. New systems will be needed to supply the power needs of space shuttles, free-flying platforms and space stations in high-earth orbits, and lunar bases. Development of space-based power sources, can - and should - begin with a modest test project to demonstrate the feasibility of new solar energy technologies to collect and beam power between objects in space and to the earth. A cooperative international test project for space-based power systems provides a unique opportunity to advance this technology. Such a test project could lead to further cooperative efforts among nations that expect to benefit from space-generated power. International participation could also make it easier to obtain agreements on the use of orbits and the portions of the electromagnetic spectrum necessary to transmit energy to earth from space. A test program could also lead to an international consensus on the future course of space power development. Based on activities already under way in several nations, a power generating program for space could form the basis for the development of space-based industries and support structures. An industrial infrastructure in space could help humanity meet its future energy needs without exacerbating the ecological deterioration resulting from global warming. The significance of an international test project has been recognized and recommended as part of the activities for the International Space Year in 1992. It is now time for industry in the United States, in cooperation with NASA, to take the initiative and join with other nations in this test project. The rewards for joining in this project could be as vast as space itself and ultimately could conserve the | Power From Space Is Pollution Free |
290166_1 | reports are there, day after day: tropical rain forests cut and burned, lakes dead from acid rain, a hole in the protective ozone layer, thousands of plant and animal species heading for extinction. The richness and variety that poets have celebrated in nature are steadily diminishing. I find myself turning away from stories about the degradation of the environment, because the kind of change needed to reverse the trend is so daunting. The very numbers and character of modern man press on our natural surroundings. Population growth, land development, industrial technology and commercial agriculture all take their toll. Think about the greenhouse effect, with its projected disastrous warming of the earth. It is caused by the chemical byproducts of systems on which we all rely: the internal combustion engine, refrigeration and so on. How can we change all that? Moreover, our usual political mechanisms are ill suited to coping with a problem on the scale of the gathering environmental crisis. Small groups, seeing only their parochial interests, often have more influence than the larger community. Consider the current controversy about clear-cutting of ancient evergreens on Federal land in Oregon and Washington. These are virgin forests. When they are gone, there will be nothing like them on earth. Americans as a people have a great interest in preserving those forests of ponderosa pine and Douglas fir. But one small group has an intense interest in cutting them down: the logging companies and their employees. And they have influence in Congress. Last month a one-hour television special on the controversy was presented by the National Audubon Society. Before it was shown, on a Turner Broadcasting System cable network, the timber industry mounted a pressure campaign against it. Stroh Breweries, a sponsor, was told that loggers would boycott Stroh beer. Stroh pulled out, withdrawing all the support it had promised for an Audubon series: $600,000. Ford, Exxon and other advertisers also canceled. The program was shown, finally, with public service announcements instead of advertising. It is supposed to appear on Public Broadcasting stations next summer. But the next time someone proposes a program on an environmental issue that affects some American interest group, will a television network be brave enough to take it on? ''No one objects if you do a story about the Brazilians burning up their forests,'' said James Lipscomb, co-producer of the Audubon program. ''But if you produce a program | The End of Forever |
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