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119793_2 | stone and ''bashi'' meaning bridge). The Firestone-Bridgestone deal underscores the dramatic restructuring under way in the American tire industry, which has suffered from overcapacity in recent years. In 1986 Uniroyal and B. F. Goodrich retreated from the business by merging their tire operations into an independent company. And last year Gencorp, based in Akron, Ohio, sold its General Tire subsidiary to Continental, a West German tire manufacturer. Statement From Chairman John J. Nevin, Firestone's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement that the company's shareholders would be served ''by their equity in a stronger tire company and by the sales and profit opportunities provided by Firestone's ongoing automotive services and diversified products business.'' After the deal was announced, Firestone's stock soared $9.25 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange, closing at $45 a share. Firestone's decision to de-emphasize its tire-making role was no surprise. Conjecture had sharpened since Firestone moved its headquarters last year from Akron, Ohio, where it was founded in 1900, to Chicago. The company's recent decision to change its name to Firestone Inc. underscored its intention to change the scope of its major business activity and decrease its role as a major tire producer. When Mr. Nevin became chief executive of Firestone in 1980, the company was in deep financial trouble. It was struggling with problems created by its defective Firestone 500 steel-belted radial tire, which the company recalled at a cost of more than $100 million. In addition, the company was lagging in transforming its operations to produce radial tires, which now account for the most total auto-tire sales in this country. Market's Sluggish Trend The popularity of radials, which typically last two and a half times longer than non-radials, also caused the growth of the tire market to slow to a virtual standstill. That problem, combined with the competitive pressures the automobile manufacturers to hold down the cost of cars has caused intense price competition among tire manufacturers. Mr. Nevin, a former chairman of Zenith, the television manufacturer, decided that the only realistic option for cash-strapped Firestone was to shrink its tire-making operations. Firestone's work force dwindled to less than 55,000 from more than 100,000 in 1979, and during the same period the company's revenues dropped to $3.8 billion in the fiscal year ended Oct. 31 from $5.3 billion. Despite heavy spending to refurbish tire-making facilities, Mr. Nevin took eight of the company's | Firestone to Sell 75% of Tire Unit In $1 Billion Deal With Japanese |
119757_0 | LEAD: Isolated in the distant South Pacific and stubbornly free of nuclear weapons and nuclear power, New Zealand has begun examining ways to survive a nuclear war. Isolated in the distant South Pacific and stubbornly free of nuclear weapons and nuclear power, New Zealand has begun examining ways to survive a nuclear war. Using French reparations funds from the bombing of the anti-nuclear Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in 1985, the Government commissioned a six-month study last year titled ''After Nuclear War.'' The study said that with much of the rest of the world destroyed, New Zealand's worst problems would be its loss of trading partners and of imported products. It predicted that the radioactive fallout and climatic changes that would devastate the Northern Hemisphere would be minimal for New Zealand. Instead, said Roger Blakely, the Secretary of the Environment, his nation would face problems of unemployment, a disruption of health services, damage to transportation and communication services and questions of ''social disorder and confusion.'' Top Priority Is Prevention The report made clear that the first priority should be prevention of war, and noted that ''although New Zealand would be among the countries least affected by nuclear war, the effects here would still be catastrophic.'' It urged the preparation of contingency plans along with immediate actions to reduce vulnerability to the problems it described. Publication of the report last fall received wide attention in the press, including reports like one that began, ''More unwanted pregnancies and more toothaches would be just two health consequences from a big cutoff of imported medical supplies.'' The Government has now embarked on its second step in preparing for a postwar world. Next month, Mr. Blakely's department is due to issue a follow-up report based on a series of public hearings and written proposals for contingency plans. Peter Rankin, head of the Planning Council, which commissioned the first study, said the Ministry of Agriculture is considering preparing special seed banks. Mr. Blakely said stockpiling pharmaceuticals or moving toward the use of traditional medicines was under consideration. After the report was published, he said, someone in the Postal Department, which was installing a new electronic telephone system, said: ''Hey, look, we wouldn't be able to use these newfangled things. Let's keep some of the old ones along with their instruction manuals.'' Mr. Blakely said thought must be given to ''what would be our relations with other Southern | New Zealand Ponders a 'Nuclear Survival Kit' |
119824_0 | LEAD: A pair of shoes being sold yesterday at Christie's East at an auction of items that belonged to the former Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos and his wife, Imelda. Many of the people had come out of curiosity; others came to buy something belonging to the Marcoses. The items were recovered from a luxury apartment and auctioned on behalf of the Philippine Government. A pair of shoes being sold yesterday at Christie's East at an auction of items that belonged to the former Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos and his wife, Imelda. Many of the people had come out of curiosity; others came to buy something belonging to the Marcoses. The items were recovered from a luxury apartment and auctioned on behalf of the Philippine Government. (NYT/Chester Higgins Jr.) | Marcos Property Sold at Auction |
122914_13 | year to develop guidelines governing the activity for the protection of both the bears and the observers, according to Arthur Hoole, director of wildlife for the department. Currently operators who run the tours, whether they be day trips or overnight camping trips, need only a ''very basic permit'' from the department, he said. Although companies have received permits for the 1988 season, Mr. Hoole said the new guidelines might govern the locations of polar bear watching camps, enforcement of the law against feeding bears and the dissemination of information. There will be a review of the situation with Churchill residents, probably in April or May, he said; the department would like to have guidelines in place by fall. ''We would like to foster this appreciation of the animal,'' he said. ''The challenge is that we want to protect the integrity of those bears.'' Mr. Hoole remarked that growth in polar bear watching has been rapid in recent years - ''It's really taken off.'' The department is also concerned about reports that bears have been fed. Based on experience with other types of bears elsewhere, Mr. Hoole said, this could lead to the polar bears' becoming used to receiving food from people and becoming more aggressive toward humans as a result. Dr. Ian Stirling, a zoologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service who has been studying polar bears since 1970, said that in addition to feeding -which he said was ''a fairly regular practice'' - the bears might be disturbed by the approach of people. ''They need to be inactive'' during this time of the year, he said. ''Sometimes they feel the need to move when approached at close range.'' They are also ''quite disturbed'' by low-flying sightseeing aircraft, he said. Mr. Hoole said he stayed in the bear-watching camp for two days last fall and found the operator ''caring and sensitive.'' He said he was concerned, however, about the bears' tendency to hang around the facility. ''The bears are curious and naturally gravitate to the site. They're not only curious about this object but they're attracted by the food preparation that naturally accompanies a facility like that.'' The bears' attraction to human presence is ''not a new thing for us,'' he added. They have often wandered into the town of Churchill, he said, but now, with humans on the bears' pathways, ''we have a new dimension'' of the problem. JANET PIORKO | CLOSE-UP LOOK AT POLAR BEARS IN MANITOBA |
123175_3 | my parents.' I said, 'We're a success.' '' The storyline of obnoxious adult authority and young rebellion held the attention of the Manhasset teen-agers, and most said it had some relevance to their lives. There were exceptions, though. Some found the film ''hard to understand.'' ''Kind of strong,'' said one young man. ''I can't relate to it as much as these young people can, because it's their language, their comments to each other,'' said Jane Hone, a parent and co-founder of the youth council. Thumps Up or Down? Another comment on language came from John Dalton, the youth council's supervisor, who praised the film but said that moviegoers unaccustomed to profanity were liable to be shocked. Mr. Dalton passed out sheets with pictures of a thumb pointing up and a thumb pointing down. ''Circle one,'' the sheet said. The group voted on whether or not the film would make a suitable centerpiece at the fund-raising dinner and dance for the town's parents. ''It'll give them something to discuss at dinner,'' said John Leonetti, a senior at Manhasset High School, shaking his head. ''What did you think of the film?'' Mr. Savage asked the group, palms up. No one seemed eager to speak first. ''Would young people care?'' he asked. ''Would they like it? Would it be applicable to this community?'' ''Thanks for entertaining us for an hour and a half,'' said Ms. Hone. ''Oh, that wasn't me,'' said Mr. Savage, gesturing toward the screen. Positive Results Mr. Savage, who has two children in college, said he found the role of the teacher ''limited.'' There was an element of frustration in the character, he said, an element he did not feel was an inevitable part of relationships with young people. ''I get a little frustrated trying to figure it out,'' he said. ''Perhaps there is less that you can do as an adult to form or transfigure or motivate kids than you think. And just behaving to the best of your ability is the best you can do.'' Mr. Dalton said the youth council vote yielded six thumbs up, two thumbs down, and one abstention.with a thumbprint on it. Mr. Savage said he was pleased, and that he would attend the benefit. ''Some people thought it was extraordinary,'' he said. ''Some people didn't. Some people enjoyed it because it was provocative. I just enjoy this whole process of doing something good.'' | John Savage Uses Film To Help His Neighbors |
123225_3 | shrimp. The seven-year-old company developed a process to convert shells discarded by Chesapeake Bay seafood processors into chitin granules. When it is spread on fields, fungi and other microbes convert chitin into enzymes that destroy young nematodes and nematode eggs. The company is expecting the E.P.A. to approve the product next month. In Wellesley, Mass., Safer Inc., a 10-year-old company, discovered that fatty acids extracted from animal tissues killed insects by degrading the outer membranes of their cells. Scientists also learned that the fatty acids were harmless to other organisms, including mammals, birds and fish. This year, Safer will introduce its products to commercial farmers. Biological Warfare Evans BioControl Inc., the developer of another natural pesticide, takes a different, but no less elegant approach. In a plant in Broomfield, Colo., the company hatches 40,000 grasshoppers a week, infecting them with a one-cell spore, Nosema locustae, that kills only grasshoppers. After the spores have multiplied and killed most of their hosts, Evans extracts them by grinding up grasshoppers. In another facility in Billings, Mont., the Nosema spore is spread on wheat bran flakes small enough to be sprayed from cropdusters. Farmers seek to prevent an outbreak by spreading the poisoned bait on grasslands and pastures in the spring, about a month after a new generation of grasshoppers has hatched. The spore, which destroys the fatty tissues of the insects, kills about half the grasshoppers that swallow it and most of the others are weakened so significantly they are unable to reproduce. The company claims that one application can provide protection through the following season. Nosema was discovered in 1953 by researchers at the Department of Agriculture but ignored by Western ranchers, who favored the more immediate protection that chemicals provided against the clouds of grasshoppers that could suddenly appear on the horizon. But many species of grasshoppers have developed genetic resistance to the insecticides, and farmers are spending more money on greater quantities of chemicals that are less and less effective. Both farmers and food retailers are recognizing that using toxic chemicals to grow food has become an important consumer issue. Major food producers, led by the Pittsburgh-based H. J. Heinz and Company, have barred dozens of chemicals on the fruits and vegetables they buy from suppliers. Though natural insecticides may be more expensive than chemicals, farmers might find using them a matter of economic - as well as ecological - | Agriculture Is Learning to Fight Nature With Nature |
123187_0 | LEAD: Here in this city long synonymous with insurance, women's rights groups have run into their toughest opposition yet in an already difficult struggle to ban what they assert is sex discrimination by insurance companies. Here in this city long synonymous with insurance, women's rights groups have run into their toughest opposition yet in an already difficult struggle to ban what they assert is sex discrimination by insurance companies. They say that insurers discriminate by sometimes requiring women to pay higher premiums, particularly for health insurance, because of their sex, and are seeking what they call ''equity'' insurance. ''Our adamant viewpoint is that rates should be based on appropriate criteria: driving record, smoker-nonsmoker, high-stress job, etc. - not on the gender of a person,'' said Jacqueline A. Zachary, Connecticut coordinator for the National Organization for Women. ''The point is equality rather than monetary,'' said Catherine M. Blinder, spokeswoman for the state's Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, which has drafted equity legislation for Connecticut. 'It's an Economic Issue' Insurance companies, however, assert that sex is a valid and necessary factor to use in determining risk. They also note that women generally pay less than men for automobile and life insurance because statistics have shown that they are safer drivers and live longer. ''They argue, 'Oh, the principle,' '' said John H. Blair, president of the Insurance Association of Connecticut. ''It's an economic issue, not an issue of discrimination. This bill would be to the detriment of women.'' Equity legislation has been approved for all forms of insurance in two states and for automobile policies alone in three others. The legislation here, which faces an uphill battle in the General Assembly, is particularly controversial in Hartford, birthplace of automobile and accident insurance policies as well as home to 13 insurance companies, including Aetna Life and Casualty, the Hartford Insurance Group and the Travelers Companies. About 53,000 people are employed by the insurance industry in the Hartford area. Opposition of a Strong Lobby If the General Assembly approved the legislation, women's rights groups in other states would likely be encouraged to seek such laws. ''The industry is very opposed to it, and it's a very influenital lobby in Connecticut,'' said the bill's sponsor, Representative Richard D. Tulisano, the Rocky Hill Democrat who is co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, where the legislation was introduced. Connecticut is considered an important state for success | HARTFORD WEIGHS INSURANCE CURBS |
123096_3 | old, and rather formidable, intellectual foes - Plato, radical skepticism and literalism. There is an ancient fault line that runs through the quadrangles of the University of Chicago. To this day Plato and his many friends - yes, Allan Bloom is one of them - occupy the intellectual territory on one side of the line. The Platonists seek a transcendent reality, beyond history and local culture, hoping to find in the eternal realm of ideas some shiny abstract conception of the ideal human being. No rock music. For a decade, during the 1960's, Clifford Geertz in Chicago was a leader of the anti-Platonist battalions on the other side of the line. The doctrine of the new rhetoric, that there is no meaning to what you say (no semantic essence) independent of the special way you say it, is a variation of an anti-Platonist theme. Those are not shadowy traces of some abstract idea on the wall; they are carbon copies of your own inscriptions, written in your local dialect. So why not feel at home in the cave? Radical skepticism is the second opponent. Mr. Geertz has always had a fondness for jesters - mischievous skeptics clowning knowingly - yet these days, in some castles in the realm of cultural anthropology, the jester is trying to be the king, and is about to lose his head. At meetings of the profession, ''anything goes'' ethnographers, lacking a sense of intellectual direction, place on display the Alice-in-Wonderland principle that ''if you don't know where you're going almost any road will take you there''; while ''nothing goes'' ethnographers, doubtful that any knowledge is authoritative or privileged or even possible, have convinced themselves that anything they say or write is biased or tarnished -Western imperial ideology disguised as a search for truth. The implication is that we are in need of a farm subsidy program for Western intellectuals: to avoid flooding the market with ideas, pay them not to think. A crisis of faith exists. The scientifically inclined do not write ethnographies at all. The humanistically inclined do not write believable ones or they only write about themselves struggling to write about others. In anthropology as in politics, liberal tolerance begets nihilism, which provokes an authoritarian reaction from the palace guard: back to brute facts and the old scientific methodism. In ''Works and Lives,'' Mr. Geertz, a liberal, diagnoses the corruptions in anthropology and | THE HOW OF THE WORD |
123109_10 | for a test to be developed to the point where it becomes a candidate for a validation study and then the validation stage itself is controversial,'' said Mr. Sabourin at the Battelle Institute. Battelle, for example, is using eggs extracted from the South African clawed frog to test chemicals known to produce birth defects. The idea is to see if the scientists can duplicate the results of similar tests on rats and rabbits. ''No one seems to agree on exactly how validation should be performed,'' Mr. Sabourin said. Making things even murkier is the fact that, in most cases, Government regulations do not specify that animal testing must be used to prove product safety. Nonetheless, Federal agencies have typically refused to endorse any alternatives. Thus, while companies are free to use in-vitro or computer screening systems to select which products they will develop, they are reluctant to rely on them completely. ''When you are past screening, the problem of regulatory acceptance of alternatives comes in,'' said Dr. Gad of Searle. ''If you do something that isn't accepted, you've lost a lot of time and money.'' The fear of product liability litigation is an even stronger barrier to change. There are cases where toxicologists would like to use in-vitro tests in the early stages of product development but top management has been ''aggressively not interested'' because of potential legal problems, according to Paul Wegner, director of marketing for Clonetics, the San Diego company that is selling cloned human skin cultures for testing applications. ''They don't want anything in the records that might contradict the animal tests. They want to make sure they stick to the one approved method and do nothing else.'' Nevertheless, as studies replicating earlier findings appear and the sensitivity of the in-vitro tests to more substances is demonstrated, the pressure for change is growing. ''In-vitro technology has already proved simpler, cheaper and more predictive in many cases,'' said Dr. Alan M. Goldberg, head of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. ''That's a hard combination to beat.'' Some of that thinking is beginning to translate into economic activity. Some 150 smaller cosmetics companies have carved out a market among animal rights backers with new products that use only ingredients already approved by the F.D.A., allowing them to be sold without more testing. PERHAPS the ultimate sign of the times is the | Beyond White Rats and Rabbits |
123109_14 | chemical for $99.50, compared with more than $1,000 for a Draize test of similar scope. ''I am not a staunch animal rightist,'' said Dr. Christopher Kelly, the company's owner, ''but this seemed like a wide-open field.'' THE PROTESTERS SHIFT GEARS THE animal rights movement has long employed a variety of tactics to garner attention, from illegal raids on laboratories to advocacy of economic boycotts. Recently, following the lead of groups protesting corporate America's involvement in South Africa, activists have begun to introduce shareholder resolutions and urge investors to avoid companies that do animal testing. The first such resolution came up last October at Procter & Gamble's annual meeting. The Cincinnati-based consumer products giant faced a proposal calling for it to stop using animal tests except when required by law, to disclose which tests are performed without anesthetics and to phase out product lines that cannot be developed without animal testing. The introduction of the resolution, sponsored by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was accompanied by a demonstration outside the meeting. The Washington-based group had targeted Procter & Gamble because the company is among the nation's largest users of animals - more than 100,000 a year, according to the animal group's estimate. The company will not say exactly how many animals its uses, but based on published information the number may be as little as half that estimate. In going down to defeat with just 2.2 percent of the shares voted in its favor, the resolution highlighted tactical splits within the animal rights movement. Henry Spira, coordinator of a number of New York-based protest groups, backed the resolution's goals but criticized the campaign to stir up anger against P.&G., a company that he described as a leader in developing and promoting alternatives to animal tests. ''It doesn't make sense to attack people who are responding to our efforts,'' Mr. Spira said recently. Indeed, Mr. Spira said that most of the consumer companies that were prominent targets during the 1980's should now be encouraged to continue research and reforms already under way. As for the protesters, they should focus on new areas of concern where the numbers of animals likely to be affected are far larger, he said. The treatment of the nation's 4 billion farm animals is one such area. Mr. Spira has already persuaded the Ralston Purina Company, an agribusiness and pet food giant, to provide Texas | Beyond White Rats and Rabbits |
123090_4 | department was originally viewed somewhat as a bastard left on the doorstep by the hunting lobby. The University of Wisconsin Press has just tripled the Leopold bibliography by publishing a collection of critical essays and a substantial biography. The essays in ''Companion to a Sand County Almanac'' confront issues raised by Leopold's book, as well as picking over its dissected literary remains. The picking is enlivened by frequent reference to the places, experiences and ideas that shaped the work. The overall quality of writing is high, which is not surprising, since accomplished writers such as Roderick Nash, Wallace Stegner and Susan Flader are represented. The collection even includes an essay by a wildlife manager, Edwin P. Pister of the California Department of Fish and Game, about the influence ''Sand County'' had on his professional development. Mr. Pister was instrumental in rescuing the Devil's Hole pupfish (a tiny blue minnow that lives only in the 90-degree-Fahrenheit water of a single Nevada cave) when nearby pumping for irrigation threated to diminish the ground-water aquifer and thus drain Devil's Hole. That was an application of the land ethic of which Leopold would have approved. With a distrust of government agencies deeper than President Reagan's, Leopold saw resident landowners and managers as his ideal constituency. Some of the most interesting essays deal with the land ethic's significance to academic philosophy, a realm as remote from average experience as the Devil's Hole pupfish's desert environment is. J. Baird Callicott, a University of Wisconsin philosophy professor and editor of the volume, has made two enlightening contributions, one about Leopold's esthetic ideas and another about the objections of other philosophers to the land ethic. He attributes these objections to: ''(1) Leopold's extremely condensed prose style in which an entire conceptual complex may be conveyed in a few sentences, or even in a phrase or two; (2) his departure from the assumptions and paradigms of contemporary philosophical ethics; and (3) the unsettling practical implications to which a land ethic appears to lead.'' He then proceeds to dispose of the objections to the land ethic in a manner convincing to this nonphilosopher. The most difficult objection, of course, is the third. If ''a thing is right if it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community,'' one might argue that the wholesale slaughter of a polluting human society would be right. Mr. Callicott maintains, however, | THE EARTH WAS HERE FIRST |
123086_3 | ''What has previously been consigned to ancient vase paintings and frescoes . . . takes on a new meaning,'' our reviewer, Siegfried Mandel, said when the book was first published in 1958. ''She ventures into the complex pre-Hellenic era confidently and with imagination and insight, takes the myth out of mythology by creating a persuasively realistic and touchable canvas crowded with ancient people and places.'' Vintage has also reissued at the same price three more of the British author's fictional re-creations of life in ancient Greece. THE MASK OF APOLLO, published in 1966, is narrated by an actor, Nikeratos, who becomes involved in a power struggle between a friend of Plato's and the tyrant Dionysios the Younger. The hero of THE PERSIAN BOY (1972) is Alexander the Great's young servant and lover, Bagoas. THE PRAISE SINGER (1978) is about the poet Simonides, and offers an inside view of Greek politics in the sixth century B.C., the Age of the Tyrants. NOBEL DREAMS: Power, Deceit and the Ultimate Experiment, by Gary Taubes. (Tempus, $8.95.) The focal points of this story about big science are Carlo Rubbia, the egocentric Italian physicist, and the CERN particle accelerator in Geneva, the largest in the world. Last year, our reviewer, Louise B. Young, praised Gary Taubes as ''a good storyteller, [ who makes ] his characters come alive. He recounts amusing anecdotes and describes the competition, the excitement and the tension that are undeniable facts of life in these big laboratories.'' THE LIMITS OF SCIENCE, by Peter Medawar. (Oxford University, $8.95.) There are some questions, Sir Peter Medawar writes, that science cannot answer, yet it is ''incomparably the most sucessful enterprise human beings have ever engaged upon.'' The Nobel laureate ''continues to radiate a confidence in rationality coupled with a no-nonsense didactic pragmatism that verges on the heroic,'' one reviewer said in 1985. SYMBOLS OF AMERICA, by Hal Morgan. (Steam Press/Penguin, $14.95.) As Hal Morgan shows in this well-illustrated book, America's heirlooms include our whimsical menagerie of trademarks, which can be at least as enticing as the products they represent. ''We have reached the region where mythical beings - Elsie the Cow, the Quaker Oats man, the Green Giant - take on a life of their own,'' John Gross said in 1986, ''where chickens are dressed like chefs and peanuts wear monocles; a land of winged heels and winged horses, blue ribbons and golden arches.'' | New & Noteworthy |
115410_2 | to disabled children in classrooms.'' While Mrs. Will agreed that ''considerable evidence exists'' to suggest that disabled students do better an integrated classes, she was cautious about the call for change pressed by the article's authors. ''We feel we need to see more studies, more models of how integration can work best,'' she said. A Variety of Settings Disabled students in public schools are educated in a variety of settings, the experts said. Most are taught in schools in which they attend some classes exclusively with other disabled students, and some with regular students. But in other schools disabled students are completely segregated. More than 73,000 disabled students in the New York City's public schools are taught in self-contained classrooms, according to school officials. But the city's Division of Special Education provides services to 113,238 disabled students. Professor Gartner, in a telephone interview, acknowledged that the law had been ''massively successful'' in important respects. Since the law took effect the number of handicapped students in public schools has increased by more than 650,000, to 4.4 million, or about 11 percent of the total enrollment. In addition, Federal spending on special education has increased sharply, to $1.6 billion in the fiscal year 1985 from $100 million in the fiscal year 1976. But Mr. Gartner said the way students were evaluated as learning-disabled and placed in special education classes was largely arbitrary. Pressure to Excel on Tests He and Professor Lipsky say the number of students categorized by school systems as learning-disabled rose 119 percent from the 1975-76 school year to the 1984-85 school year, although the total niumber of students enrolled in special education classes increased by only 16 percent. They attribute the increase in part to the pressure on public schools to have students do well on systemwide and national tests, and in part to the contention of special education professionals that they are best able to educate disabled students. Among the authors' recommendations is that all teachers be more broadly trained so that more of them can effectively teach all kinds of students in the same classroom ''We're not simply urging that students with disabilities be integrated into the regular education system as it is now, since that system as it is isn't working very well,'' Mr. Gartner said. ''We urge a re-fashioned general education system, one that will provide instruction based on the needs of individual students.'' EDUCATION | Changes in Special Education Urged |
117471_2 | Barnett of the Naval Polar Oceanography Center near Washington.''It's also rotated quite a bit counterclockwise.'' Yearly Ice Budget For climate researchers, Antarctica is a focus of concern about the greenhouse effect, the warming of the atmosphere by carbon dioxide and other gases through the trapping of infrared radiation. They wonder how higher air and water temperatures will change the yearly budget of incoming and outgoing ice. Understanding that budget has been a surprising difficult problem. Accumulation from snow seems to amount to about 2,500 cubic kilometers a year. Researchers need to know how much ice melts around the continent's edges and how much breaks off as icebergs of every size. For lack of a better alternative, scientists have supposed that a long-term balance exists between incoming and outgoing ice. But no one knows for certain. By its nature, iceberg formation is an erratic, fluctuating process - years of buildup followed by a catastrophic break. ''It is a problem,'' Dr. Jacobs said. ''It's generally assumed that it's in balance, and this is probably largely because there is not sufficient data to show otherwise.'' Data collection poses special problems. Ice fragments range from gargantuan to minuscule. Passing ships are asked to report on every iceberg they spot, and satellites can see large ones, but over all, reliable information is hard to come by. Satellites will soon be able to monitor the changing coastline directly, giving a better measurement than scientists can get by counting icebergs. At the same time, researchers on the continent are trying to understand the dynamics of flowing glaciers. As ice warms, its mechanical properties may change; as the ocean warms, the interaction of water with glaciers may change. So scientists are watching to see whether the excesses of the last two years will lead to a period of calm, or whether giant icebergs will continue to pop from the Antarctic shelves. And they are keeping their eyes on B-9. By next year, it should be in the shipping lanes of Antarctica, Dr. Barnett said, and then it could find its way to the Drake Passage, toward New Zealand. It already seems to have set off ripples of iceberg awareness. In California, Dr. Whritner reports a worried call from a woman who thought she had sighted an iceberg basking in the waters off Del Mar. ''People have gotten hyped on this thing,'' he said, ''and it triggers the imagination.'' | A Huge Chunk of Antarctica Is Heading Out to Sea, at a Glacial Pace |
117396_0 | LEAD: A new survey by botanists has found that the tropical rain forest of upper Amazonia in Peru may well have the greatest diversity of tree species of any place on earth. At two study sites near Iquitos, as many as 300 species were identified per hectare, an area equivalent to about two and a half acres. A new survey by botanists has found that the tropical rain forest of upper Amazonia in Peru may well have the greatest diversity of tree species of any place on earth. At two study sites near Iquitos, as many as 300 species were identified per hectare, an area equivalent to about two and a half acres. Alwyn H. Gentry of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis reported in the January issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that it was ''hard to imagine a more diverse forest'' than the ones in upper Amazonia. Previously, scientists generally considered the rain forests of Southeast Asia to be the richest in tree species, with surveys showing 120 to 200 species to a hectare. No comparable data on the forests of Central Africa are available. Previous estimates of species diversity in Amazonia were misleadingly low, Dr. Gentry said, because they were based on studies in the lower portion of the Amazon basin, which has less rainfall and a more pronounced dry season than the upper portion The findings, combined with other research on the abundance of birds, butterflies, reptiles and mammals, led Dr. Gentry to conclude, ''Upper Amazonia forests may generally have themost diverse floran and fau-nal assemblages in the world.'' ''From a planetary perspective,'' he added, ''the emerging generality that diversity may be uniquely con-centrated in upper Amazonia sug-gestes that special focus on preserving remnants of these rapidly disappear-ing ecosystems is of the utmost con-servational importance.'' SCIENCE WATCH | Highly Diverse Forest |
117219_4 | a mechanical engineer here, is working with a computer model that can predict performance of wheeled vehicles in snow of different depths and densities. In research that may be construed to have reinvented the wheel, his studies showed that the already widely used all-season radial tires are superior to all others, including snow tires, under most snow conditions. ''The standard military tire, which had been in use since 1941, performed the worst in all conditions except on ice, where no tire was any good,'' he said. He explained that the tread on radial tires allows snow to be kicked out from the spaces between the tread as the tire rolls, presenting a constantly clean surface to the road. Dr. Colbeck, who is a geophysicist, is interested in a different kind of transport across snow. His office is littered with halves of skis constructed of varying materials. He is awaiting shipment of a ski equipped with instruments that can send back reports on its performance over varying snow conditions. He explained that sliding on snow involves gliding on a very thin film of water formed when the heat of friction melts the snow. Traditional Eskimo dog sleds glide easily because they have wooden runners, which are poor thermal conductors and hold onto the heat of friction. But when early polar explorers tried to replace the wood with metal, which is a good conductor of heat, the metal drew heat away from the interface of snow and runner and the sled moved sluggishly, as if through sand. Dr. Colbeck's main concern is the aluminum skis on aircraft. ''What,'' he wonders, ''can be done to make them better sliders? Insulation, perhaps.'' Metamorphosis of Snow But Dr. Colbeck's primary research interest is the metamorphosis of fallen snow, an interest he shares with skiers, dwellers in snow houses, animals and observers of nature. For example, people who wander through wooded areas some days after a snowfall may notice depressions in the snow around the base of trees and deep snow in the sun-drenched clearings. Dr. Peter Marchand, a winter ecologist from Tucson, explains in his book, ''Life in the Cold'' (University Press of New England), that while new-fallen snow is nature's best reflector of shortwave radiation, sending back 75 to 95 percent of the sun's rays, it readily absorbs the longwave, or heat, energy given off by objects like trees. Dark tree trunks absorb incoming | For Snow, the Real Action Begins After It Falls |
117388_0 | LEAD: To the Editor: To the Editor: In ''How Civil Rights Came to Be a 'Special Interest' '' (Week in Review, Jan. 17), you identify the groups that make up today's civil rights movement: blacks, Hispanic people, women and girls, the elderly and the disabled. Curiously absent are children. In the last 15 years, advocacy groups across the country have struggled to secure basic rights for children. Many of the tactics and strategies we use are borrowed wholesale from the black civil rights movement. Other tactics evolved from the consumer-rights movement, especially our use of information publicized in the media. DAVID W. RICHART Exec. Dir., Kentucky Youth Advocates, Louisville, Ky., Jan. 20, 1988 | Children's Rights |
117342_3 | space war, and secondarily to detect the exhaust plumes of missiles. Orbiting some 200 miles above the Earth, the satellite used springs to eject the four rocket-powered missiles and 11 other objects, the nature of which the Pentagon has not disclosed. They are thought to include simulations of a Soviet ballistic missile ''bus,'' or platform carrying multiple nuclear warheads, as well as various decoys, devices, and materials meant to confuse an anti-missile system. Officials also said they planned to use the satellite sensors to study the exhaust plumes from the rocket-powered missiles. Dr. Sidney D. Drell, a Stanford University physicist who is critical of the ''Star Wars'' program, said the test was potentially important in its theoretical objectives, but added that a key outstanding issue was the realism of the objects in the test. ''The question is whether it's rigged or not,'' he said. ''At this point, with the minimal information they've released, it's too soon to say.'' Rapid Maneuvering Officials said that as the targets were released, the computerized satellite was to move rapidly about. According to a statement by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, which designed the sensors, the satellite was to ''execute over 200 maneuvers expected to be needed for a low-orbit battle stations.'' These maneuvers, it said, are to allow the satellite ''to sample rapidly changing backgrounds'' including the Earth, horizon and space, and ''view test objects against such backgrounds.'' Such rapid maneuvering is highly unusual. Satellites usually orbit the Earth smoothly with ground controllers firing thrusters only occasionally to correct their course. The seven sensors on the Delta 181 satellite are to view the test objects in a variety of wavelengths, trying determine which ones work best for target detection and tracking. The sensors include laser radars, conventional microwave radars and optical devices working in the infrared and ultraviolet parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. In addition, the Pentagon said about 100 ground-based radars and telescopes around the world would track the satellite and its test objects. John E. Pike, head of space policy for the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists, which opposes ''Star Wars,'' said the test showed the Pentagon's commitment to early deployment of an anti-missile system in the mid-1990's and questioned whether the results of the experiment would be available soon enough to aid sensor plans aleady underway. Security at Cape Canaveral was extremely tight for the launching. The launching pad | MILITARY SATELLITE LAUNCHED TO TEST ANTI-MISSILE PLAN |
117376_0 | LEAD: Next month, Towers on the Park, a 600-unit condominium at Central Park West and 110th Street, opens its doors. It's the latest monument to the work of the New York City Partnership, whose founder and chairman, David Rockefeller, stepped down yesterday. Next month, Towers on the Park, a 600-unit condominium at Central Park West and 110th Street, opens its doors. It's the latest monument to the work of the New York City Partnership, whose founder and chairman, David Rockefeller, stepped down yesterday. To complete the Towers project, part of an ongoing commitment to affordable housing, the Partnership secured subsidies, cut through red tape and is marketing the units, of which 232 have been purchased by people earning about $30,000 to $40,000 per year. Since its inception in 1979, the Partnership has produced 2,800 housing units throughout the five boroughs; 5,000 more are in the pipeline. In addition to building housing, the Partnership has found summer jobs for 180,000 young people and arranged for corporations to adopt more than 50 city high schools. Mr. Rockefeller's career with the Partnership promoted the idea that interests of business and the city are intimately linked. Workers need affordable housing; good schools are required to turn out a viable work force; summer jobs help make for safer streets. That important message can't be overemphasized. | Topics of The Times; Vital Partnership |
117215_0 | LEAD: Conflicting desires for secrecy and publicity have been apparent in the military's planning for yesterday's launching of a research satellite as a test of a missile defense in space proposed by the Reagan Administration. Conflicting desires for secrecy and publicity have been apparent in the military's planning for yesterday's launching of a research satellite as a test of a missile defense in space proposed by the Reagan Administration. From the start, the precise day and time were official secrets, but the Pentagon nonetheless took unusual steps to prime the press, releasing far more advance information than it had for past ''Star Wars'' tests. Pentagon officials say they cloak military launchings in secrecy to foil attempts by the Soviet Union to track and study the launchings, tests and satellites. Briefing, Press Kit, Embargo This time officials bent their secrecy rules to the limit. They conducted a background briefing for Washington reporters a week ago today at which they issued a 12-page press kit describing the mission in detail, including five pages of illustrations, with an embargo on publication of the material until the launching. On Wednesday, a call went out to interested reporters to be at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for a Thursday launching. After that attempt failed because of a rocket glitch, the call-out procedure was put on hold, then repeated. The Pentagon made available to television networks a four-minute animated video presentation on the test, to be shown after the launching. In addition, the Pentagon has scheduled at least two news conferences to go into the results of the test in detail. It Was 'to Reduce Confusion' Lieut. Col. Edwina Palmer of the Army, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the flood of information had been released to reduce ''confusion'' surrounding earlier antimissile space tests. But critics of the antimissile program suspected that another factor at work was a desire to influence Congress. ''The timing is certainly convenient for the beginning of the budget cycle,'' said John E. Pike, head of space policy for the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists, which opposes the antimissile plan. | Official Promoting, Too, Went Off Into Space |
117236_0 | LEAD: Raw sugar futures prices plunged the limit allowed for daily trading yesterday on indications of weakening Soviet demand, analysts said. Raw sugar futures prices plunged the limit allowed for daily trading yesterday on indications of weakening Soviet demand, analysts said. The contracts for March and May delivery of sugar, on which the daily half-cent limit has been removed pending their expiration, lost 0.64 cent and 0.57 cent, respectively, on New York's Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange, with March settling at 8.15 cents a pound. All other sugar contracts settled down the limit. 'Bearish Gloom' Over Market The selloff was led by a trade house that deals heavily with the Soviet Union and Cuba, perhaps indicating Soviet demand would be less than previously thought, said Kim Badenhop, an analyst with Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Inc. Mr. Badenhop said a ''bearish gloom'' had settled over the sugar market last week after F. O. Licht, the West German sugar statistical concern, raised its estimate for 1987-88 Soviet production to 9.7 million metric tons, up from its October estimate of 8.15 million metric tons. ''That indicates the Soviet Union's import requirements from free-world markets will be a lot less than previously indicated, which removes a major bullish factor from the market,'' Mr. Badenhop said. Cattle Futures Advance Cattle futures were sharply higher while pork futures ended mixed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Cattle prices were supported by Friday's semiannual Agriculture Department cattle inventory report, which showed the nation's cattle herd to be about 600,000 head smaller than the nearest estimate, analysts said. Higher cash prices for cattle also helped lift cattle futures, said Charlie Richardson, an analyst for Lind-Waldock & Company in Denver. Hog futures were mixed and frozen pork bellies were lower on weaker cash prices and expectations for larger slaughter numbers this week, Mr. Richardson said. Grain and soybean futures settled mixed on the Chicago Board of Trade. FUTURES/OPTIONS | Raw Sugar Prices Plunge; Less Soviet Demand Feared |
117229_4 | could play in the pros, but you don't really know. There are so many good players in the world. One reason is all the hours I spent practicing. Another reason is that my loving family was 150 percent behind me, and the Good Lord was behind me. I never took anything for granted.'' UNTIL Jackson's senior year, some of us would have predicted he had a future with the Wyoming Wildcatters or the Leaning Towers of Pisa. But the St. John's coaches and the New York backcourt mystique and Mark Jackson's support system had prepared him well. The Knicks' chief scout, Dick McGuire, the original and the unblemished Tricky Dick, the best pure passer St. John's and the Knicks ever had, recommended the Knicks draft Jackson on the first round. ''After I got drafted, I finally got to meet Walt Frazier,'' Jackson added. ''After a basketball dinner, I was walking with my mother when I looked at the corner and there was Walt Frazier, trying to catch a cab. I asked him if I could give him a lift.'' The irony of this happening only a few yards from the players' entrance, where Jackson had waited for Frazier all those nights of his youth, is not lost on Jackson. ''I mean, I'm standing there like a little kid,'' Jackson continued. ''We get in my car, and I'm driving 10-15 miles per hour, just trying to make the ride last. I know he's thinking, 'What a jerk, he doesn't even know how to drive a car,' but I don't care. He told me he had read a lot about me watching him when I was a kid, patenting my game after him. He gave me a lot of credit.'' Jackson finally got Walt Frazier home that night, before turning the car toward St. Albans, where he still lives to this day, in the family home, sharing a room with his 15-year-old brother, Troy. Why is he still at home? ''I want to be with my loved ones,'' said the Knick from Queens. ''It's great for Troy in one respect, but sometimes people want to see me in him, and I have to tell him to keep his own identity.'' Midway through his rookie season, Mark Jackson has not lost his own identity, the one formed at Madison Square Garden, watching how New York guards play the game. SPORTS OF THE TIMES | THE KNICK FROM QUEENS |
116794_2 | bulldozers. But change has come to the basin of the Amazon and its main tributaries as the population of the region has soared from 11 million to 19 million people in 15 years. #3,000 Species of Fish Motorboats and trawlers now work the waterways once dominated by canoes and steam vessels. They ply the currents at night to provide fish for the local market and for buyers in the rest of Brazil and abroad. With more than 3,000 species of fish in all the colors of the rainbow, this region has turned into the world's largest hunting ground for ornamental fish. Government records show that in 1974, the state of Amazonia exported six million live aquarium fish. In 1985, the number had grown to 18 million, seven million of which went to the United States. ''No one here has tried to farm ornamental fish, and no one knows what the stocks are,'' said Michael Goulding, an American expert in tropical fish working here. ''But we know they are dwindling. People go looking for aquarium fish further and further into the headwaters.'' Ban Considered At the Government fishery agencies, however, the debate centers on the growing shortages in fish used for food. ''We may have to ban fishing of some species for up to three years,'' said Paulo Rolin, the regional director of the agency. He spoke of the oval-shaped tambaqui, a tasty, olive-green fruit- and nut-eater, and of the pirarucu or bony-tongue, one of the world's largest fresh-water fish. It can grow to be more than 10 feet long and weigh almost 400 pounds. The agency's study, embracing the Amazon between Tabatinga and Itacoatiara, close to 1,000 miles, found that the tambaqui harvest dropped from almost nine tons in 1979 to half that in 1986. Over the same period, the catch of the pirarucu fell from 1,140 to 380 tons. Solutions offered include proposals for requiring each new hydroelectric dam to include a fish farm to restock the rivers and the reservoirs. The agency has banned catching tambaqui under 21 inches and pirarucu under 6 feet. Scant resources are available for wildlife and fisheries; the immense water network of Amazonia has only 20 fisheries rangers. Nonetheless, Mr. Rolin and his aides plan to visit every river community to discuss ways to protect the fish. ''The river people have to be involved,'' he said. ''It's the only way it can work.'' | No Headline |
116995_0 | LEAD: THE PROBLEM HAS ALWAYS been what to do with them. One Minnesota plant turns them into a re-usable rubber compound. And, of course, they make good rope swings. There are an estimated 2 billion discarded tires in this country; about 40 million - the world's largest pile (above) - are near Westley, Calif. THE PROBLEM HAS ALWAYS been what to do with them. One Minnesota plant turns them into a re-usable rubber compound. And, of course, they make good rope swings. There are an estimated 2 billion discarded tires in this country; about 40 million - the world's largest pile (above) - are near Westley, Calif. There, with technology developed in West Germany, the New York-based Oxford Energy Corporation is burning them as hydrocarbon fuel, to provide electricity for Pacific Gas and Electric. ''One tire,'' says Robert Graulich, Oxford's vice president for administration, ''can serve the energy needs of the average northern California household for a day.'' The new $41 million Oxford plant is slated for full commercial operation in March, pending fine-tuning of its environmental protection devices. One is a smog control system developed by Exxon to neutralize nitrous oxides that result from the combustion of hydrocarbons. Another, known as a baghouse, ''operates like a giant vacuum cleaner,'' Graulich says, and collects fly ash - ''the grey of grey smoke.'' The ash contains a high concentration of zinc (used in vulcanizing tires), a byproduct to be recycled. Finally, a ''scrubber'' sprays lime on the emissions, which combines with the pollutant sulfur to form gypsum, another recyclable commodity. ''We anticipate not having to landfill anything,'' Graulich says. ''And we'll release almost nothing into the atmosphere, hopefully even less than California law permits.'' The plant is expected to burn more than 4 million tires annually; a fleet of tire-collecting trucks will keep it supplied. But Oxford, aware that tire mountain is dangerous and unsightly, has a commitment to the local Stanislaus County to diminish it. ''We might be able to get it down to a million,'' Graulich says. ''A manageable number.'' WORKS IN PROGRESS | Overtired |
116554_0 | LEAD: SEVEN months ago, New Jersey's health-care community received a challenge: to develop innovative and unique approaches to the state's most pressing health-care problems. SEVEN months ago, New Jersey's health-care community received a challenge: to develop innovative and unique approaches to the state's most pressing health-care problems. This challenge came from the New Jersey Health Services Development Program, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of Princeton, the nation's largest private grant-maker in the area of health care. Under the program, nonprofit groups would compete for grants of up to $500,000 for model projects in ambulatory and community health care. The program's goal, in the long run, is to see the establishment of projects that will demonstrate unique and needed services and that will serve as models for the development of similar projects statewide. Almost 200 health-care providers responded. Letters of interest were received not only from the state's hospitals, universities and government agencies, but also from smaller, community-based organizations -mental-health clinics, home-health and visiting nurse associations and community providers for the poor, the chronically mentally ill and the disabled. Each applicant identified an impor-tant unmet need in the community and proposed a way to meet that need. A broad range of health problems was addressed. Greatest attention went to the health needs of children and the elderly. Programs also were proposed that would better serve adults with psychiatric or developmental disabilities, physical impairments and substance-abuse problems. The health needs of New Jerseyans with specific illnesses - AIDS and cancer, for example - were recognized as well. Lessons from this program, although focused on the health concerns of a single state, are relevant to the entire nation. Perhaps most importantly, we learned that the health-care community indeed can produce a wide range of creative and thoughtful responses to this sort of challenge. ''Front line'' providers may be hampered by a lack of public funds, but they have no shortage of ideas about how to better meet the needs of their communities and individual patients. Another lesson comes from the substance of the projects proposed. New Jersey, as a microcosm of the nation's health-care concerns, reflects issues found throughout the United States, and several major themes emerge from the proposals submitted to the program: Coordination and management of health services is often deemed insufficient. Regardless of which population or service is addressed, consumers clearly need help finding their way through | A CHALLENGE FOR HEALTH CARE |
116715_4 | is self-conscious in a different way. Its protagonist, Sam Meade, is a science fiction reader, his good friend Snaker O'Malley is a science fiction writer, and their responses to a beautiful naked time traveler appear to be influenced by their familiarity with the entire bag of science fiction cliches about time travel. Yet Mr. Robinson anchors his narrative in the earthy reality of a north-country winter, along the shores of the Bay of Fundy in rural Nova Scotia. He writes knowledgeably about wood stoves and music and drugs and friendship in a tight-knit community of aging hippies during the early 1970's; his ruminations on telepathy (and its problematic relationship to privacy) are expressed with admirable force and clarity. Then he undoes everything by revealing that what we have been reading is a sequel (or rather a ''prequel,'' since it comes first chronologically) to his novel ''Mindkiller,'' which was published in 1982. ''Mindkiller'' was a good book in its own right, but I much preferred ''Time Pressure'' - until the unwanted revelation. Instead of resolving the tensions he has so adroitly built up, Mr. Robinson simply disposes of them with a chunk of ill-written exposition tying the events and characters to those of the earlier book. In every case, the explanations supplied in the last 38 pages are far less interesting by an order of magnitude than the mysteries posed in the first 179 pages. I prefer to think of ''Time Pressure'' as an intriguing work in progress whose ending remains to be written. * * * I started reading THE AQUILIAD: Aquila in the New World by S. P. Somtow, which has just been reprinted (Del Rey/Ballantine, Paper, $3.50), because it had a provocative premise that the author promised to play for laughs. What if the Roman Empire had never fallen, and Roman galleys rather than Spanish galleons had discovered the New World (''Terra Nova'') and conquered its inhabitants? I did enjoy the good-natured sparring between a pompous but likable Roman general named Titus and an irrepressible Lacota chief named Aquila. However, gags based on Latin tags for Amerindian tribes (Olmechii, Apaxae) quickly pall, and when Titus and Aquila, tracking the legendary ''Sasquatii'' of the Pacific Northwest, encounter a bigfoot who greets them with a cry of ''Shalom,'' it becomes apparent that Mr. Somtow's approach to his material is eclectic to a fault. His enthusiasms do him credit: Woody Allen, | SCIENCE FICTION |
116542_0 | LEAD: Nietzsche Thought he put his finger on it with his distinction between Apollonian and Dionysian personalities. Other thinkers have divided us into such antagonistic camps as Yogis and Commissars, Hedgehogs and Foxes, Yea-sayers and Nay-sayers, Saved and Unsaved. Wagner detected a sharp difference between Day People and Night People. Nietzsche Thought he put his finger on it with his distinction between Apollonian and Dionysian personalities. Other thinkers have divided us into such antagonistic camps as Yogis and Commissars, Hedgehogs and Foxes, Yea-sayers and Nay-sayers, Saved and Unsaved. Wagner detected a sharp difference between Day People and Night People. Classicists are forever at the throats of Romantics. I myself have heard arguments between Post-Modernists and Post-post Modernists. Something in us wants arguments to have two sides, each hotly, if not blindly, defended. To the barricades! Recently, for instance, after hearing works of two radically different Polish composers from ludicrously different eras, Witold Lutoslawski and Alexander Scriabin, I thought how satisfying it would be to believe passionately in one or the other. Unfortunately, I could only conclude that the approach of both composers had something to be said for it - that awful, lukewarm phrase. I realize that Dante in his grand plan consigned the uncommitted to one of the lower circles of hell. But I also take consolation from Yeats, who observes in ''The Second Coming'' that the best people lack conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity. The problem with Scriabin is his largely misguided belief that a composer's transcendental experiences - spiritual, religious or sexual - can be conveyed almost intact to a listener. Consequently, he wrote music that is all climaxes, one chasing another in endless, hysterical cycles. Yet, excluding the possibility that he was simply a charlatan, Scriabin was doomed to disappointment. Listening to Giuseppe Sinopoli conduct two of Scriabin's symphonies with the New York Philharmonic (''The Divine Poem'' and ''The Poem of Ecstasy'') I grew increasingly depressed at the thought that Scriabin actually had hoped to transmit his soul-shattering experiences to other human beings in any form that would resemble the original. Mystical experiences, however vivid, can only be springboards. The essence of art is artifice, the recollection and manipulating of deep feelings recollected in tranquillity, as Wordsworth almost said. Handel may have thought he saw the great God himself while composing ''Messiah,'' but he then had to get on with any 18th-century | Opposites Don't Necessarily Attract |
116980_4 | to all our intrafamilial traditions. But unusual approaches are called for by these unusually appalling conditions. In May 1986, Education Week produced a special report on the ways in which America's ''population in motion'' is changing the outlook for schools and society. The report states that ''a growing percentage of the nation's children are being born into, and growing up in, environments that in one way or another endanger their physical, emotional and intellectual development.'' In January 1987, a special panel in New York City reported after a yearlong study of child abuse and neglect that ''there is virtually no recognition of a shared responsibility for the well-being of our children.'' And just last fall, the Committee for Economic Development, a group of business leaders, released an extraordinary report reminding us: ''This nation cannot continue to compete and prosper in the global arena when more than one-fifth of our children live in poverty and a third grow up in ignorance. The nation can ill afford such an egregious waste of human resources. Allowing this to continue will not only impoverish these children, it will impoverish our nation - culturally, politically and economically.'' There are, however, numerous indications that the continuance of life-stunting factors so often cited in the press and elsewhere have begun to move us to action. Child advocates are coming together as never before, pollsters are identifying child and family issues as important ''political issues,'' the business community is recognizing that good schooling at the earliest levels is not only good for children, but also for business, and legislators from both ends of the political spectrum are uniting in co-sponsoring important legislation on behalf of children and families. Although these signs have taken too long to emerge, they are indications that the moral imperative to care for our children is a force that must supersede and transcend all questions of politics and turf. We need to resolve to narrow the gap between hollow promises and necessary deeds. We need to be strong enough to cry for all our children who are in need. This must be the year in which we as a nation agree that all children have the right to realize their full potential. This must be the year in which all sectors of our society act to assure this right for all our children - ours, whether or not we brought them into this world. | THE CHILDREN OF THE CHILDLESS |
116981_6 | a professional. The book provides check lists that can be used to make sure the professional inspection is thorough. At the very least, its information can be used to negotiate with the seller if the potential buyer finds flaws that will require expensive repairs. William J. Klein, who has lived in Larchmont for 10 years, was a contractor in Brooklyn, specializing in renovating brownstones, and he was struck by the comment of a real-estate lawyer that ''people are buying houses and they don't know what they are doing.'' When Mr. Klein's son was born 14 years ago, he decided that he would like to be able to spend plenty of time with the child and went into business for himself, inspecting homes for prospective buyers. With a background in structural engineering from New York University and his experience as a renovator, he said he could find the problems and estimate the cost of repairs. He moved to a 1930's Tudor in Larchmont that was ''a real wreck,'' which he knew when he bought it. He has renovated it completely, and meanwhile has inspected 9,000 to 10,000 houses. YOUNG CHILDREN OF WESTCHESTER: A SOURCE BOOK OF SERVICES AVAILABLE FOR CHILDREN FROM BIRTH TO 5 YEARS OLD by Jane Berger. Outreach Publications. 170 pages. Paperback, $7.95. This book provides a comprehensive listing that appears to satisfy every need of babies and small children, from baby nurses for newborns to birthday-party entertainers, day care and emergency aids. It includes schools, classes of all kinds, names of doctors and such unusual categories as activities for fathers and their children. It tells where to buy toys, where to take children on outdoor expeditions, where to get children evaluated and where to go with children who have disabilities. The information is listed in two ways: by category and by location. Jane Berger, who has lived in White Plains for six years, was an art director and designed and produced two books, ''Guide to Jewish New York City'' and ''Guide to Jewish Europe.'' When her daughter was born four years ago, she felt there was a need for information on resources for children. She and her husband, Dr. Neil Berger, a psychologist, formed their own publishing company and produced the book on their home computer. The book is available at some bookstores and can be purchased by writing to Outreach Publications, Box 209, White Plains, N.Y. 10605. | WESTCHESTER BOOKCSAE |
118987_3 | of the Criminal Justice Center in 1991 is expected to free up large areas of City Hall, including a courtyard that is now a parking lot for vans used to transport prisoners. The competition is in preparation for the building's 100th anniversary, in 1901. It is sponsored by the Foundation for Architecture, a local nonprofit organization that promotes an appreciation of Philadelphia architecture, and carries $25,000 in prize money. For years now, some have argued City Hall has been in danger of falling down. The building is riddled with more than seven and a half miles of failed mortar joints and undetermined miles of structural and foundation cracks. Dozens of the estimated 1,000 statues and carvings on the building are missing fingers, noses, toes, tails and wings. The City Hall tower, which was eclipsed last year as the tallest structure in Philadelphia by the One Liberty Place office tower, has been encased in scaffolding for almost three years as engineers assess the damage and begin repairs. A private citizens' group raised more than $800,000 and completed the restoration of the statue of William Penn atop the tower in time for last September's observance of the Constitution's bicentennial but the $18.5 million repair job on the tower is only in the early stages. 'Temple of Folly' The city has also spent about $500,000 on emergency structural repairs to stabilize the building, but officials have declined to comment on the cost of the work that remains. Some estimates have put the total as high as $30 million. The current state of City Hall has come to symbolize to some residents the chronic disarray and corruption in municipal government. But as historians note that perception is not new. City Hall was considered an expensive boondoggle even while it was under construction. Alexander K. McClure, a 19th-century newspaper publisher and a prominent Republican, dubbed City Hall ''the temple of Philadelphia's folly,'' noting that its costs was rising faster than stone and mortar. Ultimately the building cost $25 million, two and a half times what had been planned. ''City Hall is an easy target and everybody is taking shots at us,'' said Joseph S. Graci, the chief engineer for the Department of Public Property who is in charge of the restoration. ''But even if they were serious about tearing it down, they could never begin to figure out what to do with all this stone.'' | Philadelphians Choosing Sides Over City Hall |
118875_5 | have both experiences simultaneously. Well, what do we see? Mr. Wollheim claims we see the boy in the painting, and that means we have one experience with a twofold aspect, a boy aspect and a mark aspect. If you wonder what such an experience might be like - an experience that is neither of boys nor of marks but is of both at once, in an inextricable fusion -you will not receive an answer from Mr. Wollheim. He can offer no further illumination on the matter. That's a pity, because his idea of one experience with a twofold aspect seems to be a classic instance of explaining something in terms of an idea that is more obscure than the thing we wanted to explain. In many ways the most exciting feature of the book is the dazzling series of readings of Manet, Ingres, Poussin, Titian and Bellini that makes up most of it. It is fair to say that no one has written more insightfully, or out of a greater theoretical depth, about the esthetic rewards of these paintings. Mr. Wollheim's interpretations are bold, revisionary and cogent. Only a philosopher of his rare gifts, and a connoisseur with his command of the art-historical tradition, could possibly have the confidence to bring off his feat of virtuoso interpretation. He argues for a previously unsuspected and undepicted internal spectator in some of Manet's major works, for a revisionary interpretation of the meaning of Stoicism in the art of Poussin and for a very convincing psychoanalytic reading of Ingres's pronounced habit of returning to themes of a stern father softened by a son's plight. The final chapter is a brilliant argument to the effect that certain paintings by Titian, Bellini, Willem de Kooning and others represent the painter's attempt to project his fantasies about the human body onto his canvas. All of these interpretations are provisional and controversial, and they are all informed by the author's profound grasp of psychoanalytic lore on such topics as introjection, dreams, fantasy, the threatening gaze and the bodily ego. If properly received, ''Painting as an Art'' could be just the book art history and art criticism need to free them from the dead, cold hand of certain modern and post-modern dogmas. Mr. Wollheim's reconsiderations of major figures in the painterly canon and his reinvigoration of traditional methods of connoisseurship demand, and will receive, many answers for a | LOOKING AT PICTURES THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY |
118718_1 | To lament the shortage of priests and to pray for more ''vocations'' (God's call, supposedly) to the priesthood is to stubbornly reject four solutions not opposed to Catholic theology. First, increase effective lay participation, especially that of women, in all aspects of church governance, from finances to the selection of local bishops who, for centuries, were chosen by the local churches, not by the Bishop of Rome. This would give priests more time and energy to devote to the ministry that is theirs uniquely through priestly ordination. Second, return to optional celibacy for priests. Many people, including Catholics, are not aware that in the Roman Catholic Church are still several ''rites.'' Most priests in the United States belong to the Roman or Latin rite. However, even today and after many centuries of such practice, some non-Latin rites (also called Eastern rites) in the Roman Catholic Church have optional celibacy and, thus, married priests. In the Latin rite till the 12th century at least, many bishops did not require their priests to be celibate. Only as late as circa 1550, the Council of Trent made the requirement universal, but only for the priests of the Latin rite. It does not seem unreasonable to assume that more men will choose to become priests under these conditions. Third, institute part-time priests. Of the over 500 resigned priests in the New York metro area alone, about half would be willing to give four or five hours weekly to the active ministry. This would represent an additional 1,250 priest-hours a week - the equivalent of 25 new full-time priests at no additional cost to the governmental church. Shortage of priests or shortage of vision? Fourth, ordain women to the priesthood and question the belief that God does not call women to the priesthood. If the process of having women priests is to be gradual, start by ordaining deaconesses and out of them select women priests in the future. None of these solutions are contrary to Catholic theology; they may be viewed as nontraditional. But banks owned by the Vatican, Popemobiles and English Mass after four centuries of Mass in Latin can also be viewed as ''nontraditional.'' If these solutions are used, the projected statistics for the year 2000 in the article would change very favorably for the 1.5 million Catholics who are expected to live in Long Island in another decade. DANIEL L. ARAOZ Malverne | CHALLENGES FACED BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH |
118828_2 | in Florence in 1986, of which ''The Human Figure in Early Greek Art'' is an extension. This exhibition is not large. Most of the works are not life-size stone sculptures, but small bronzes and pots. Despite the spotlighting and a specially designed installation that projects a sense of spectacle, the feeling remains intimate. The show is not adventurous. The catalogue includes informative essays by Theodora Karaghiorga on ''Bronzes'' and Evelyn Harrison on ''Sculpture in Stone,'' but there are statements in other essays that read like excerpts from press releases by the Greek tourist bureau. There could have been at least a hint of new directions in classical scholarship. It is not a question of capitulating to fashion. Only museums can provide a forum in which new ideas can be tested against the art that inspired them. Both the subject and approach are familiar. Probably everyone who has taken Art History 101 since World War II has been guided from Mycenaean civilization, which collapsed around 1100 B.C.; through the alternately rigid and meandering patterns of the Protogeometric and Geometric periods, known as the Dark Ages; through the emergence in the eighth century B.C. of Greece as we know it, with its city states, laws, temples and epic literature; through the flowering of archaic temples and the growth of monumental sculpture, to the fifth century B.C. and the Parthenon. The roughly 500-year period covered by the show is described in the catalogue as the ''bedrock on which European representational art was based for 2,000 years.'' This is not a journey in which modernism had much interest. The Greek development from stylization to naturalism has been presented, correctly, as an expression of cultural progress toward increasing mobility, self-consciousness and freedom. For modernism, on the other hand, freedom and self-consciousness could only be attained by moving in the opposite direction, away from notions of naturalism and imitation, toward stylized and primal idioms. What has mattered in a century of excess and change is not an evolution of conventions toward harmony and synthesis, but rather challenging conventions and throwing notions of synthesis and harmony into question. The first object in the exhibition is a terra-cotta centaur that is one of the finest surviving objects from the 10th century B.C. . The human torso and head are as erect and frontal as an architectural facade; the animal body seems almost to have been pulled out of | HUMAN FIGURES ENSHRINED BY THE EARLY GREEKS |
119016_2 | contemplate runaway population growth in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, countries with many people pressing to join their relatives who have already moved to France. Demographic Angst France had a population of 33 million when in 1830 it conquered Algeria, which had less than two million inhabitants. At independence in 1962 Algeria had 10 million citizens and today it has 23 million; at the end of the century it will have 35 million, and if demographic trends are sustained, it will have the same population as France in the year 2030. With a population today of 55 million, France is host to about four million immigrants - not in itself an overwhelming number. But France's demographic angst stems from an awareness that many of the immigrants, notably the 1.5 million North Africans, have much higher birthrates than the native French. Gerard-Francois Dumont, a provocative demographer of right-wing views, recently created an uproar by producing projections to show that by the year 2015 the French population will have dropped by 5.2 million, and the population of non-French, non-white immigrant origins will have increased by the same number. After that, he asserted, births among the immigrant population would constitute a third of the total in France. Actual numbers may be less important than the perceptions of them. ''The anguish of the French,'' observed Dominique Jamet, a French journalist, ''is that the Arabs are young, poor and numerous and that we are old, rich and few.'' More than its neighbors, France has traditionally regarded a robust and growing population as a reflection of national strength. A stagnating and aging population nourishes gloomy meditations about national decline. Demography is one of the subliminal issues of the French presidential election campaign, which will be decided on May 8. ''Our survival as a nation,'' declared Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, the Gaullist candidate, ''depends ultimately on setting right our birthrate, which is itself tied to the confidence that families have in their future.'' A Young Underclass All candidates promise to take measures - such as establishing day care centers, pregnancy leaves and financial aid to mothers - to encourage larger and more stable families, although experience shows that this is one realm where politicians have meager influence. Western Europe closed its doors to immigrant workers in the mid-1970's, but their numbers continue to grow because of the reuniting of families and an influx of asylum-seekers. But for the | THE WORLD: Contrasting Birth Rates; Old World Fearful Of Third World's 'Silent Invasion' |
122409_0 | LEAD: Laszlo G. Versenyi, a philosophy professor at Williams College, died Tuesday of cancer at his home in Williamstown. He was 59 years old. Laszlo G. Versenyi, a philosophy professor at Williams College, died Tuesday of cancer at his home in Williamstown. He was 59 years old. Professor Versenyi, who began teaching at Williams in 1958, received many academic awards, including a senior fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1970 and grants from the American Council of Learned Societies. He wrote numerous articles and four books on philosophy and ancient Greek thought. In addition to Greek philosophy, he taught courses on the German existentialist Martin Heidegger. | Laszlo G. Versenyi, Philosophy Professor, 59 |
122367_2 | 65-footers are not far from the mark.'' This seaport of more than 10,000 people was founded in 1811 as Fort Astoria by an expedition sent out by John Jacob Astor. It likes to call itself the first permanent American settlement west of the Rockies, but it is better known for the ship-eating sand bar. Tourists come to gawk at the skeleton of the Peter Iredale, a British four-master carrying European goods bound for Portland, that went aground in 1906. Her carcass lies half-buried in sand just around the bend from the bar. On the Washington side of the river, the Coast Guard runs a high-seas rescue school. Trainees pile into 44-foot covered lifeboats, designed to roll 360 degrees. They then learn to pluck the drowning from sinking vessels off the bar. It is ''one of the most exhilarating things in the world,'' Lieutenant Monteith says, but it is not a sport. Since 1960, 10 Coast Guardsmen have also lost their lives here. A few months ago divers confirmed the authenticity of the oldest wreck ever found here, the Isabella, a Hudson's Bay Company trading ship that sank in 1830. She went down near Sand Island. The ship, a two-masted square-rigger carrying trading goods for the Indians at Fort Vancouver, has just been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places, Underwater Division, which will protect her from human marauders. According to an account of an officer in the British warship H.M.S. Raccoon, which nearly sank here in the War of 1812, ''The sea breaking over us caused in the features of many brave men a gloomy appearance.'' Gloomy? Captain McAvoy has another word for it: crazy. Bearded, blue-eyed, drawing on a cigarette as a 600-foot container ship carrying Hyundais from South Korea cruises by, he says that in two decades of guiding ships across the bar, he has never felt at ease. He bought his ship from the West German Coast Guard. She is certainly seaworthy, he says, but spending too much time inside her ''is like living in a pipe.'' Requirements to join the Columbia River Bar Pilots are among the world's most stringent. Like mountain climbers and those who fly hang-gliders, pilots on this river are familiar with the adrenal rush that accompanies life-or-death excitement. ''You just have to be a lunatic to want to do this,'' said Captain McAvoy, adding that he would never do anything else. | Astoria Journal; Where a River and the Sea Eat Ships |
120836_0 | LEAD: The decline in the earth's environmental health can be reversed, but only with a substantial investment by the rich nations, according to the 1988 State of the World report published by the Worldwatch Institute. The decline in the earth's environmental health can be reversed, but only with a substantial investment by the rich nations, according to the 1988 State of the World report published by the Worldwatch Institute. The institute, a Washington-based research and policy organization, estimates that $150 billion a year would be required to reverse the declining environment and put the developed and developing nations on the path to sustainable economic growth. The money would be used for reforestation, halting and reversing the growing loss of topsoil and the growth of deserts, family planning and other measures to curb population growth, developing energy sources that do not damage the environment, and dealing with the heavy burden of third world debt. The institute says foreign debt is an environmental issue because it leads poorer countries to waste their resources to obtain immediate capital. ''Putting the world on a sustainable footing will not be easy, given the environmental degradation and economic confusion that now prevail,'' said Lester R. Brown, president of the institute and its project director for this report. To do so, he added, would take ''a wholesale reordering of priorities, a basic restructuring of the global economy and a quantum leap in international cooperation.'' ''To continue with a more or less business-as-usual attitude - to accept the loss of tree cover, erosion of soils, expansion of deserts, the disappearance of plant and animal species, the depletion of the ozone layer and the buildup of greenhouse gases - implies acceptance of economic decline and social disintegration,'' Mr. Brown said. The report pointed to a ready source for the money needed to restore the earth to health: global military expenditures that have now reached $900 billion a year. The report said national security is increasingly being defined in terms of environmental and economic security rather than by the standard of military power. Mr. Brown noted that in the last decade China had shifted much of its resources from military spending for just the kinds of investments called for in the institute report. In effect, he said in an interview, ''the Chinese walked away from the arms race,'' and in the process, doubled per capita income and raised food production | Report Sees Hope for Battered Environment |
120730_0 | LEAD: It was exciting to read about how Donald Perry has learned to traverse the jungle canopy to explore the secrets of the rain forest (''Secrets of the Rain Forest,'' by Erik Eckholm, Jan. 17). It was exciting to read about how Donald Perry has learned to traverse the jungle canopy to explore the secrets of the rain forest (''Secrets of the Rain Forest,'' by Erik Eckholm, Jan. 17). Unfortunately, nearly 75,000 acres of tropical forest are converted or deforested every day. In other words, an area the size of Central Park disappears every 16 minutes. If this present rate of deforestation continues, most of the forests will be gone in less than 70 years. The time has come that one cannot think about the mysteries, beauties and benefits of jungles without considering their threatened heritage. Thank you for giving your readers a glimpse of this fantastic and threatened world. DANIEL F. KATZ President, New York Rainforest Alliance New York, N.Y. | SECRETS OF THE RAIN FOREST |
120712_5 | something I always have in the back of my mind,'' he says. ''One day it could all be over. I could come in and there will be a lock on the gate, like in Howland Hook, like in Hoboken.'' MY FATHER WORKED at the Hoboken piers in 1971 when the gates were padlocked. He was 60 years old then, and had 32 years on the waterfront, mostly on the old docks eight blocks from our house. One Friday he came home from work as usual and when he walked back Monday morning the padlock was there, the steamship line nowhere in sight. No warning, no explanation. Just gone. I never worked a day on the piers, but they've shadowed my whole life. I am the son of a longshoreman, the grandson of a one-time longshoreman, the nephew of three uncles who had many waterfront hours etched on their faces. Before the waterfront disappears, or is transformed into some- thing unrecognizable, I want to know it the way my father did. One evening not long ago I walked with my father down River Street in Hoboken, by the old piers he knows so well. It looked like an old movie set, one that was used long ago and then put on some back lot to rot. Most of the windows are broken now in the old headhouse in front of the piers. They were built by the Germans but confiscated by the United States Government in 1917 and used to ship soldiers to Europe for World War I. My father's earliest memory of the docks goes back to when he was 7 and the North German-Lloyd piers, loaded with soldiers' caskets, burned furiously with black smoke, from what was probably an accidental fire. We walked in silence down the street where an endless line of trucks used to wait to get into the piers. The big chalk board where the gangs were listed for work hung on a nail. Across River Street, the bars and beer gardens that once formed a notorious bulkhead of sin known as the Barbary Coast have all been leveled, replaced by functional apartment buildings and parking garages. There's only one place left to have a drink and see the piers: a fancy Italian restaurant across from what used to be a North German-Lloyd pier. The woman who took our coats knew my father by his waterfront | From Fathers to Sons on the Waterfront |
121040_1 | injured and homeless. He also postponed a parade that was scheduled for this evening to close the Carnival festivities. Many Live in Lowlands This city of eight million people is particularly vulnerable to tropical storms because, while a large portion of the population lives perched on steep hillsides, several million live in the low-lying Baixada Fluminense where drainage is poor or nonexistent. Parts of town are linked by tunnels that are themselves often closed by flooding. The disaster Friday night came after three weeks of almost continuous heavy rain in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The storms have left at least 233 people dead and close to 20,000 homeless. Until now, the greatest damage had been in the mountain resort of Petropolis, where more than 100 people were killed by landslides two weeks ago. City officials said earlier rains had loosened the earth of many of the steep hillsides that are covered with slums, thus setting the stage for the disaster Friday night. The authorities have often warned that, as hillside forests are replaced by shacks, the erosion accelerates and disasters of this kind become a permanent threat. The officials said that, with further rain expected in the coming days, the authorities want to evacuate slum dwellers from many areas threatened by landslides. In some slums, the population has already fled to schools and churches on lower ground, but in others, inhabitants were reluctant to leave their few belongings. #40,000 Homeless in Amazon Other regions of southeast Brazil have also been affected by the recent rains, with the main coastal highway linking Rio de Janeiro and Santos now cut off in five places by landslides. In the west Amazonian region of Acre, swollen rivers have left more than 40,000 people homeless. The main highway linking this city to Belo Horizonte and the capital of Brasilia has also been badly damaged. The four-hour storm Friday night struck Rio de Janeiro during the evening rush hour, leaving tens of thousands of people stranded downtown as buses and trains were halted by water and debris. At dawn today, hundreds of volunteers took to the streets of the neighborhoods of Tijuca to start clearing mud that was almost 18 inches deep. The same scene was repeated in many other parts of the metropolis. In Santa Teresa, more than 50 firefighters and other volunteers worked throughout the day looking for survivors and victims at | Tropical Storm in Brazil Leaves at Least 65 Dead |
120709_0 | LEAD: CITRUS IS THE SAME IN French and English, conjuring up images of freshness, lightness and zesty flavor. The year-old restaurant named Citrus in Los Angeles blends French and American cuisines to produce lively and remarkably healthful dishes. CITRUS IS THE SAME IN French and English, conjuring up images of freshness, lightness and zesty flavor. The year-old restaurant named Citrus in Los Angeles blends French and American cuisines to produce lively and remarkably healthful dishes. The plates that come out of chef-owner Michel Richard's gleaming open kitchen could be the work of an Impressionist painter. Colorful pools of sauce are at once intense and clear, rich and simple. They also show what can happen when a French sensibility is applied to California cooking. ''There is definitely a French tradition that is based on fresh flavors,'' says Richard. ''We use the term pointu, meaning they have an edge that enlivens them. The minute you add butter and cream, that changes, and the honest flavors are dulled.'' Richard, a classically trained chef from Rheims, spent much of his career as a patissier. First, he worked with Gaston LeNotre in France and, in 1975, in New York City at the short-lived LeNotre shop. After that, Richard spent 10 years running his own pastry shop in Los Angeles. He continues to seduce those who flock to Citrus with dazzling pastries, properly buttery and creamy. But much of the cooking that precedes dessert is remarkably light. ''I was tired of hearing how French food is heavy,'' says Richard. ''And I was tired of seeing the French open the same restaurants here as they would in France.'' Citrus, therefore, is thoroughly Californian in appearance. The small white building - located, incidentally, on the corner of Citrus and Melrose Avenues - has a patio covered with white canvas awnings and umbrellas. Both outdoor and indoor dining rooms are filled with white wicker chairs and pale yellow linens. Richard likes to think of Citrus as classy but ungilded. With the exception of two French cooks, the kitchen staff is American. ''A young chef trained in the classical French manner would have a hard time here,'' Richard says. ''I hired one, and he couldn't understand what I was doing.'' Richard acknowledges that Michel Guerard's cuisine minceur, the calorie-controlled style of cooking developed for the spa in Eugenie-les-Bains, has influenced him. ''But I was not looking to be scientific about | FRENCH ACCENT, L.A. LIGHT |
121033_0 | LEAD: The 150-year-old Blue Riband, a trans-Atlantic speed title claimed two years ago by a powerboat team from Britain, is expected to generate two more multimillion-dollar record attempts this June. The 150-year-old Blue Riband, a trans-Atlantic speed title claimed two years ago by a powerboat team from Britain, is expected to generate two more multimillion-dollar record attempts this June. Groups from the United States and Italy are building state-of-the-art aluminum speedboats to try for the 3-day-8-hour speed record set in 1985 by Richard Branson, a British records entrepreneur. But the Blue Riband designation, and an ornate silver and onyx trophy commissioned in its behalf in 1935, may not be theirs for the taking. In question is whether the modern speedboats competing for the Blue Riband qualify for a title that some historians say was devised for ocean liners. Succeeds on 2d Attempt The Blue Riband is the name of a British title awarded in 1858 to the wooden paddle steamer Great Western for its record 15-day trans-Atlantic passage. The prize associated with the title is the Hales Trophy, donated by the late Harold Hales, a member of British Parliament, to the winner of the Riband. The trophy has been on display since 1964 at the museum of the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y. Branson claimed the Blue Riband on his second attempt. His first custom-built speedboat sank in 1985 near the end of the crossing. The second boat, the 72-foot Virgin Atlantic Challenger II, succeeded in its 3,200-mile ocean trip, from New York to the Scilly Isles off the coast of England. The record voyage sliced two hours off the time set by the ocean liner S. S. United States in 1952. Trophy Meant for Ocean Liners Frank Brainard, curator of the Kings Point museum, refused to award the Hales Trophy to the Branson team. And he doesn't plan to give it to either of the teams going after the record this summer. ''We feel the trophy was meant entirely for ocean liners,'' said Brainard during a telephone interview last week. ''It has been ships that have gotten it in the past. A toy boat - a speedboat - seems contrary to what Mr. Hales intended with his trophy.'' Ocean liners that have won the prize include the Normandie and the Queen Mary. Brainard concedes that he has no control over the title of Blue Riband. | Atlantic Record Sought for Speedboats |
120947_0 | LEAD: Dr. Speros Vryonis Jr., an expert on the effect of Hellenism and Byzantine culture on Asia Minor and the Balkans, has been named the first director of the Onassis Center for Hellenic Studies at New York University. Dr. Speros Vryonis Jr., an expert on the effect of Hellenism and Byzantine culture on Asia Minor and the Balkans, has been named the first director of the Onassis Center for Hellenic Studies at New York University. Dr. John Brademas, the president of the university, said Dr. Vryonis would be Alexander S. Onassis Professor of Hellenic Culture and Civilization and a professor of history. Dr. Vryonis is now a professor of history at the University of California at Los Angeles. The Onassis Center was created in 1987 with a $15 million gift from the Onassis Foundation. Dr. Vyronis is the first of six professors whose positions are endowed by the foundation's gift. | N.Y.U. Names Vryonis Head of Onassis Center |
120774_0 | LEAD: NEARBY RAFTING North American Whitewater Expeditions Inc., based in Hamden, Conn., offers what it believes is ''some of the best whitewater rafting in the East'' beginning in March and continuing through early May. An eight-mile stretch of the upper Housatonic River, starting at Bull's Bridge Gorge in western Connecticut, provides a course through rapids that drop 90 feet in the first mile, then rushes through steep chasms, over large waves and difficult ledge drops. NEARBY RAFTING North American Whitewater Expeditions Inc., based in Hamden, Conn., offers what it believes is ''some of the best whitewater rafting in the East'' beginning in March and continuing through early May. An eight-mile stretch of the upper Housatonic River, starting at Bull's Bridge Gorge in western Connecticut, provides a course through rapids that drop 90 feet in the first mile, then rushes through steep chasms, over large waves and difficult ledge drops. Trips will be run daily, manned by professional guides certified in safety and first-aid procedures. The inflatable boats hold eight people, including the guide. No experience is necessary. An instructional session before boarding, and a steak or haddock lunch afterward are included in the $65 fee. Paddlers must wear wetsuits, available for rent at $10. The meeting place is in New Milford, where a bus departs at 9:30 A.M. for Bull's Bridge. About 3 hours are spent on the river, ending at lunchtime back in New Milford. Overnight packages are available for about $185 a couple, including the rafting fee. By arriving the day before, one may enjoy the area's scenic beauty, restaurants, antiques shops and handcraft studios. To reach the site take Route 684 to 84, then east to Danbury and north on Route 7 to New Milford. Phone (203)248-8924 for reservations and more information. CHINESE CELEBRATION This is the Year of the Dragon on the Chinese calendar, and it is to be celebrated at 8 P.M. Saturday with an authentic Chinese dinner followed by a dance program at the Byrdcliffe Performing Arts Center, 10 South Division Street, New Rochelle. Yung Yung Tsuai, artistic director of the center and founder of its dance troupe, will perform in a style that fuses her classical Chinese training with western influences, especially those of Martha Graham, Pearl Lang and Daniel Nagrin, with whom she studied. On the program is ''Awakening,'' based on Tai Chi movements, and a traditional Chinese ribbon dance performed by | WESTCHESTER OPINION |
118617_3 | that can be sheltered by a child, particularly younger children. For a child under 14, investment income in excess of $1,000 is taxed at the parents' top rate, which can be as high as 38.5 percent on 1987 returns. This tax treatment applies regardless of whether the income stemmed from a gift from the parents, or from a grandparent, a family friend or other benefactor. A new form - Form 8615 - has to be filled out and attached to the child's return when investment income exceeds $1,000. The tax is computed as if the excess investment income of the child were included in the parents' income. As for the first $1,000 in investment income, younger children can normally count on the first $500 being exempt from tax since they are allowed to use up to $500 of the standard deduction to shield investment income. The next $500 is taxed at the child's rate. Thus, for example, a child under 14 who had $1,800 in investment income would see the first $500 exempt from taxes, the next $500 taxed at an 11 percent rate and the next $800 taxed at the parents' top rate. For a child of 14 or older, none of the income is taxed at the parents' rate. The income is taxed as it was under the old law, at the child's rate. When a child has income both from investments and a job, the standard deduction is generally limited to the amount earned on the job or $500, whichever is greater. For example, a child who earned $700 from mowing lawns and $900 interest from a bank account would be limited to a standard deduction of $700. The maximum standard deduction that can be claimed on 1987 returns is $2,540. Scholarships and Fellowships Some college students will see a bite taken out of their scholarships by the new tax law. For students seeking degrees, scholarships and fellowships are still tax-exempt to the extent that the money is used for tuition, fees, books, supplies and equipment. But money spent for room, board and incidental expenses is now subject to tax. Students who are not seeking degrees lose the limited tax-exemption they had under the old law. The new treatment applies only to scholarships and fellowships granted on or after Aug. 17, 1986. Students whose scholarship proceeds are subject to tax can use the standard deduction to help | More Children Must File And the Bill Will Be Higher |
120262_0 | LEAD: Large-scale tests of potential AIDS vaccines may have to take place in Africa, a senior Federal health official said yesterday, and he has begun discussing the possibility with African officials. Large-scale tests of potential AIDS vaccines may have to take place in Africa, a senior Federal health official said yesterday, and he has begun discussing the possibility with African officials. Recent setbacks in scientific research suggest, however, that such tests are unlikely to be required for many years, if ever, scientists told the President's commission on AIDS. If preliminary studies show a vaccine candidate to be promising, then large-scale trials of its effectiveness may have to be conducted in Africa, where the disease is still spreading rapidly, rather than in the United States, where the spread appears to be abating, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md. At the meeting, the first of three days of hearings that the commission is holding in New York, several scientists also said that Federal regulations governing the flow of funds were hampering research on AIDS. #15 Protesters Arrested A group of demonstrators were arrested in the evening after blocking traffic in front of the Metropolitan Life Insurance building, where the commission is holding its meetings. Inspector Robert J. Baumert said the police arrested 15 protesters, who had formed a line across the intersection of Park Avenue South and 23rd Street. Demonstrators were carried to police vans after blocking the intersection for five to 10 minutes during rush hour. Michael W. Miles, a spokesman for ACT UP, an AIDS activist group that organized the protest, said members of the group will attend the commission's meetings on Saturday and might disrupt it as well. ''Civil disobediance is what's being called for,'' Mr. Miles said. The demonstration by ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, was to protest what group members described as unnecessarily slow progress in developing and distributing drugs against AIDS. Yesterday's hearing focused on the progress of basic research on acquired immune deficiency syndrome and on the search for a vaccine against it. The Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic was established in June 1987 to advise the President and the Secretary of Health and Human Services on how the nation should respond to the deadly disease. It has held public meetings in Washington, D.C., and is scheduled to | U.S. Official and Africans Confer On Testing AIDS Vaccines There |
120345_3 | law faculty ''a bunch of Communists, Socialists, and P.L.O. sympathizers.'' But until now it has always been buttressed by an extraordinary esprit de corps, one that eased the task of building and sustaining an innovative institution. Now, though, a visitor encounters only indignation and bitterness, demoralization and fear. It is as if some fragile but precious fabric has been torn. ''It's a kick in the gut,'' one student said of the dismissals. Indeed, compared to the alienation, ennui and cynicism encountered at most ''leading'' law schools, the enthusiasm of CUNY law students is startling. The City University President, Shirley Strum Kenny, and Chancellor Joseph S. Murphy won't discuss the decisions, beyond saying they were based on scholarship and teaching effectiveness. Under those criteria, they note, eight of the first 10 teachers considered for tenure have made it, including four this school year. But faculty, students and alumni claim the dismissals are retribution for the bar scores. As Daniel Greenberg, director of clinical programs at Harvard Law School, put it, ''The University has adopted the managerial style of George Steinbrenner.'' Both Ms. Merton and Mr. LaRue had in fact been recommended for tenure, only to have that reversed once the bar results became known. What the University really seeks, its critics say, is to curb the law school - a crackdown felt by women, minorities, clinical teachers and leftist legal scholars at other schools as well. Elite law schools have always taken perverse pride ignoring bar exams. Such nuts-and-bolts concerns smack to them of Babbitry, and, besides, their students are nimble-witted enough to obtain what they need from bar review courses, tortuous affairs more akin to taxidermy than learning. Concerned with placement and accreditation, CUNY has no such luxury. The school has initiated remedial academic measures, but some panicky students take cram courses as early as their first year. Paradoxically, Professors Merton and LaRue are among those who actively addressed the problem. Their supporters note that by placing conventional scholarship - like law review articles - above teaching, professors will be less accessible to students. If the tenure decisions stand, they say, the school will be unable to draw or retain faculty. That, in turn, could change it from the most innovative to the 174th cookie-cutter law school in the country. And CUNY, one professor said sadly, would become a school primarily for those ''who can't find parking places in Manhattan.'' | The Law; At the Bar |
127886_2 | received no formal request from the company to be put on NASA's approved food list and that he was not aware of any particular demand from American astronauts for fine food in space. Mr. Baudry, who is also working on the development of a European space shuttle, recalls seeing food spatter on his spacecraft's walls when anything was spilled in space. ''Even bread shouldn't flake,'' he said, because the crumbs could float away and clog machinery. The dehydrated food served aboard the United States space shuttles is rehydrated with water. Baleme's products are not dehydrated, but are preserved in aluminum cans or tubes. In his restaurant in Vezelay, which has been awarded three Michelin stars, Mr. Meneau has developed simple dishes from basic but high-quality ingredients, like a blend of mashed potatoes and herring, chicken with tomatoes and peppers, or a hearty vegetable broth. After Mr. Meneau and his staff prepare the food, it is taken for packing to Rougier, which produces foie gras in jars and cans, near Toulouse, or to Morvandelle, near Vezelay. The Baleme line now includes 64 dishes, from soups to pigeon with lentils to a moist and caloric pound cake with prunes. ''I'm trying to find the flavors that hold up best in tubes,'' the chef said. A taste of a dessert suggests that he has not quite eliminated the slightly metallic aftertaste that comes from sterilizing food in metal tubes. The challenge for Baleme is to find recipes and technologies that will keep food for long periods under extreme variations of temperature, and to pack the food in cans and tubes that resist extreme weather conditions but are easy to use. The Soviet space program requires that food for space flights keep four years; NASA requires two years. If Baleme is not chosen, ''it won't be a disaster,'' Mr. Meneau said, because preliminary market research conducted for the company indicates the home market may be more important than that for space travel. Novespace, which seeks to promote commercial spin-offs from the French space program, is doing the market analysis for Baleme. A spokesman for Novespace said the potential market for long-lasting, handy and good-tasting portable food is strongest among athletes and adventurers, and perhaps among home users who want convenience and long shelf life. Japanese customers have already bought 1,000 boxes of Baleme's products to stock bomb shelters, and have ordered more, said Mr. | Food Fit for the Stars, or at Least a Mountaintop |
128012_0 | LEAD: The Department of Transportation proposed yesterday that the major airports, which handle 95 percent of the nation's passengers, be required to install card systems to limit access to restricted areas. The Department of Transportation proposed yesterday that the major airports, which handle 95 percent of the nation's passengers, be required to install card systems to limit access to restricted areas. Under the proposed rule, computer-controlled cards would be issued to employees for such access. The plan would cover mechanics and ground crew employees with access to planes. And it would cover flight crews who prefer not to use the main screening system for passengers. The proposed rule is one of a series of airport security measures prompted by the crash of a Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner on a flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco in December. All 43 people on board were killed. Evidence gathered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation indicates that the crash was caused by an employee of US Air who had been dismissed. The bureau said he had smuggled a gun on board and had fired at least four shots. US Air acquired PSA last May. California Crash Cited Drawn up by the Federal Aviation Administration, the new rule refers to the California crash, saying it ''highlights the F.A.A.'s interest in improving control of access to secured areas of an airport by unauthorized persons.'' The rule acknowledges that it has ''not been established that the former employee used an air carrier identification card to gain access to secured areas of the airport.'' But it adds that the F.A.A. is nevertheless ''concerned that current airport identification procedures may allow individuals using forged, stolen, or noncurrent identification to compromise a secured area.'' The card-checking system would be separate from the screening process for people boarding a plane from the main passenger terminal. To assure that they do not carry weapons on board, passengers walk through passageways equipped with magnetometers. And their carry-on bags are X-rayed. Interested parties will have 45 days to comment on the proposed rule, which the agency hopes can be put into effect by year's end. After that, the biggest airports, those annually screening 25 million or more people, will have 30 days to submit a plan for putting the system into operation. Smaller airports screening two million people a year would have 60 days. The rest of those affected would have six | LIMITS SUGGESTED AT MAJOR AIRPORTS |
128021_0 | LEAD: The Soviet Union is reducing its support for the Cuban economy, according to documents of the Cuban National Bank obtained by a human rights group and made public today. The Soviet Union is reducing its support for the Cuban economy, according to documents of the Cuban National Bank obtained by a human rights group and made public today. For nearly three decades the Soviet Union, which generally accounts for 80 percent of Cuba's international trade, has been Cuba's principal supplier of oil, food, machinery, spare parts, chemicals and other vital materials. Until last year Soviet trade with Cuba was increasing by about 10 percent a year. But the documents made public today, in the form of a Cuban National Bank quarterly economic report, showed that imports from the Soviet Union in the first nine months of 1987 declined for the first time in nearly three decades. The papers were submitted by Cuban officials Jan. 18 at a meeting in Paris called by Cuba to try to reschedule its $2.4 billion debt to Western governments - chiefly Spain, France, Britain, West Germany and Japan. Soviet subsidies of Cuba, mainly through Moscow's supply of low-cost oil and its purchase of Cuban sugar at inflated prices, have been estimated at $4 billion to $5 billion a year. The Cuban National Bank document showed that imports from the Soviet Union in the first nine months of last year declined to $3.98 billion from $4.00 billion over the same period of 1986. The papers also provide a stark picture of a deteriorating Cuban economy. Last year was ''one of the worst years the country has had to face,'' said one document, showing that economic activity had contracted by 3.5 percent while investment decreased by more than 20 percent. Cuba owes an additional $3.1 billion to Western banks and suppliers, giving it one of the largest external debts per capita in the world, $2,000 per person, which is twice that owed by the average Brazilian. The disclosure that imports from the Soviet Union are in decline was seen by some experts as evidence of important changes in Cuban-Soviet relations. ''It shows that the Soviets are starting to become conscious of the costs of subsidizing the Cuban economy,'' said Manuel Sanchez Perez, a former Cuban Deputy Minister of Material Technical Supply who defected in 1985. 'Can't Afford It Any More' A Reagan Administration expert, who asked | Soviet Said to Reduce Support for Cuban Economy |
127972_1 | of a large hall at Rutgers University was the complainant himself. He had been invited to give a short speech and take part in two forums. But what promised to be a day of scholarly Sturm und Drang turned into nothing more than a mild disagreement, which left some in the audience wondering if Professor Bloom had been right all along: Has the drive for careerism, relativism and egalitarianism in the American academy killed the intellectual passion that was supposed to be the byproduct of a sound liberal education? In other words, are students and professors so busy chasing a buck that they get no pleasure, no fire, no fulfillment from simply being forced to think, to ponder the great questions of life? Professor Bloom holds that these questions, as they are implicit in the ''Great Books,'' should form the basis of the liberal arts. For example, he would not simply teach Plato's ''Republic,'' he would narrow a course to Book VII, in which Socrates confronts Glaucon with the riddle of the shadows on the cave wall. Students should ask: What did Plato mean? What have philosophers and writers across the ages said he meant? What is truth? Where should we begin to look for it? This, the professor has said, is a much more valuable pursuit than diffuse courses like ''Man in Nature,'' ''War and Responsibility,'' ''Culture and the Individual.'' It is, he has also suggested, more important than black studies or women's studies or any of the other ethnic, cultural or social specialties. The situation is grave, he warned the audience. ''We are very much the products of thoughts and unless we think ourselves, we shall be the products of other people's thoughts,'' he said. ''Liberal education is learning to think about good and bad. Such thinking is of the highest virtue.'' Henry Rosovsky, the former dean of the faculty at Harvard University, tried to answer Professor Bloom by saying, ''All education has to impact and reflect the times and the places in which we live. Knowledge of our time cannot be static.'' George Levine, the Kenneth Burke Professor of English at Rutgers, argued: ''The ills of society are not the consequence of our failure to teach values in the classroom. The classroom won't alter the drive for competition, success and money.'' Perhaps, but it might also be said that in an age of profit and expediency, the | LESSONS |
130231_0 | LEAD: Despite a growing arsenal of powerful drugs to relieve asthma and a deeper understanding of asthma attacks, more people are dying from the ailment than ever. Despite a growing arsenal of powerful drugs to relieve asthma and a deeper understanding of asthma attacks, more people are dying from the ailment than ever. Allergists say they are baffled by the trend, which has been reported in the United States and abroad in the last 10 years. While asthma deaths remain relatively rare, their frequency in the United States has doubled in a decade. ''No one should die from asthma,'' said Dr. William Franklin of the Harvard Medical School. ''Here is a disease that is totally treatable. We should be seeing a sharp decline in deaths, yet we are seeing a rise.'' Role of Bronchodilators Drug treatments that in theory could all but eliminate asthma deaths have become available In the same period in which the death rates have risen. But now, some experts argue the evidence suggests that overreliance on one group of these drugs, bronchodilators, which instantly open blocked airways, may be an important factor in the rise in deaths. Worried and mystified by the mortality trend, the Academy of Allergy and Immunology, an American professional society, has formed a study group with the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization and several other medical groups to search for causes. Possible explanations could include better recording of asthma deaths and increases in urban air pollution, Dr. Franklin said. But he said he thought other factors would probably be found to be more critical. Poor medical care might help explain the unusually high asthma death rate among blacks, three times the rate for whites in the United States, experts say. But the death rate among blacks has risen at the same pace as that of whites. In the United States, 3,880 people died of asthma in 1985, up from 1,674 deaths in 1977, said Dr. R. Michael Sly, director of allergy and immunology at George Washington University in Washington. Most deaths occur in people over the age of 55, but the death rates have risen in all age groups. 'A Real Parodox' The death rate in the United States, adjusted for the fact that people are living longer, has doubled from 0.9 deaths per 100,000 people in 1979 to what Dr. Sly projects will be 1.8 per 100,000 this | Health: Medical Paradox; Asthma Doctors Puzzled As the Death Rate Rises Despite Improved Drugs |
124665_2 | in the Rio Negro; Corydoras species, which is a miniature catfish that barely reaches 4 inches maximum and is inedible, and the third fish is a tiny, 2-inch fish, Petitella georgiae, the Rummy-nose Tetra. None of these are edible, nor do even the poorest Indians eat them. I have been intimately involved with collection of these three groups of fishes in Brazil. Every year, as many of them as the market demands are easily captured because they are available only during certain periods or seasons. The Cardinal Tetra, for example, is controlled, and collection is allowed only after the breeding season. Fish exporters merely capture a few months' extra supply and store them in ponds and vats, shipping them during the protected season. In the dry season more than 95 percent of these fishes are lost to predation because their normally protected habitat in the submerged grasses and plants shrinks, and the small fishes are forced to retreat to larger streams and rivers, where they are gobbled up by larger fishes. Thus, if fishermen are denied access to these small fishes during any year, the fishes are not saved, nor are they protected. They are merely wasted. Aquarium fishes are one of the few replenishable resources of the Amazon, and the ''conservationists'' would be better advised to train the fishermen to ship, store and grow aquarium fishes than to breed them. Easily bred aquarium fishes are raised by the millions in such centers as Florida and the Far East, with Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore producing millions more than come from Brazil. The collection and shipping of tropical fish is the largest single replenishible resource available to most third world countries. The collection of birds and other animals has been severely curtailed by do-gooders, who barely understand the economic impact their actions have on the starving villagers in small third world cities and villages. Some parrots, for example, are prohibited exports. Yet every Indian village I have visited in Brazil shoots parrots for food and feathers. When they were allowed to export the baby parrots, they only robbed the nest and didn't hurt the breeders. Now they kill everything without thought of wildlife conservation. The only conservation they know is to conserve their own lives. HERBERT R. AXELROD Neptune, N.J., Feb. 8, 1988 The writer, publisher of Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine, has written more than 38 books on aquarium fishes. | Along the Amazon, Conservation of Fish Could Be Harmful |
131826_1 | like William J. Bennett, the Secretary of Education, have complained repeatedly about the absence of the classics in college curriculums. The Great Books program here at St. John's has its critics, of course. There are those who hold that the Hellenic genius of the Republic cannot be appreciated or even understood without at least a passing survey of the earlier Aegean and Minoan cultures. And there are those who wonder, friends of the college among them, how the Nicomachean Ethics read in Greek prepares someone for a modern world. The answer is a conundrum: for as it turns out, such a classical education, one in which utility has no place, prepares some students brilliantly and some not at all. If they are as pointed and ambitious as Rachel Ankeny, 20 years old, of Dearborn, Mich., they learn to think clearly and to understand completely any point of view, no matter how much they disagree with it. Miss Ankeny plans to get a graduate degree in public health and a law degree, which will lead to a career in bio-medical ethics. Studying the ancients, particularly Euclid, she says, has prepared her well to deal with the questions raised by medical technology. ''Euclid's taught me to be thorough and about simplicity in a way and that bears on everything,'' she said. ''I've also been thinking about language, thinking about how we think and how we talk. When you can bring that down from a philosophical level to everyday life, that can be very important, but usefulness is not emphasized here. I don't think we could be shaped by reading a book that tells us how Plato fits into the world. That's what we're faced with now, going out into the world to do things, to experience things.'' It is only natural to think about utility here in a place of intellection where one is equipped to go into the world with only the ability to think. And, after encountering John Gibson, 23, of Omaha, one might even suggest that this kind of an education can spoil a mind for anything else. ''After St. John's, I think I'd like to stay doing these same sorts of things,'' he said, ''but I'm having difficulty finding a way in which to do that.'' In other words, he wants to be a scholar? ''That's true,'' he said, ''but I'm not going to graduate school because I'm | LESSONS |
131927_1 | can be reduced. Traction controls that prevent wheel spins is another technology the smart sensors will popularize. Today these are installed only on a few expensive models. Also possible are ''active'' suspension systems. Conventional springs and shock absorbers would be replaced with motorized adjustment devices that provide a comfortable ride regardless of road conditions. Again, cutting costs will be crucial. Common to all these technologies is the need for rugged sensors that can translate changes in physical conditions into electrical signals. ''Silicon is a robust material that is capable of operating in harsh environments, such as under the hood of a car,'' said John P. McTague, the Ford Motor Company's vice president for research. ''It can be machined to form a sensor and the logic elements can be implanted as well.'' The General Motors Corporation has been using a silicon sensor for more than seven years to measure pressure in intake manifolds as part of its engine control system. It is not ''smart'' yet, because the electronics are in a separate package nearby, but it can demonstrate how the electrical and physical properties of silicon can be combined. A piece of silicon about one-eighth of an inch square is masked and etched chemically so that a square well is formed in the middle. Then it is mounted, open side down, on a piece of glass so that the .001 inch of silicon at the bottom of the well acts as a membrane that deflects slightly when the outside pressure changes. Meanwhile, resistors have been implanted at the edges of the membrane by the same techniques used to make integrated circuits. These resistors act as strain gauges, with their electrical value changing as the membrane flexes in response to manifold pressure changes. Integrating the sensor and its electronics not only cuts size and possibly costs, but also reduces the danger that the sensor's minute signal will be lost amid the electrical noise under the hood. ''An automobile is a lousy environment for electronics,'' said C. David Wright, a research engineer at General Motors' technical center. ''If you can get the processing right down where the information is being sensed, you put a better signal into the system.'' Auto company researchers are also looking into using the unusual properties of chip-grade silicon to fabricate more complicated structures for other types of sensors. One of the most important properties is that this kind | Small 'Intelligent' Sensors That Are Affordable in Cars |
131906_1 | that swim well are left alone,'' he said. ''Some we keep for study or for the zoos. All threatened species are released.'' As the boats swerved among palms, rosewood and wild fruit trees, the rescue team kept ducking to avoid vines and aerial roots, dangling like dangerous nooses overhead. Invisible birds screeched like parrots. ''If they are curassows we have to save them,'' Dr. Melo said. ''They cannot fly distances.'' Many Dams Are Built The drama of rising tides washing over huge tracts of nature is now acted out almost constantly in Brazil. Stung by the oil crisis of the 1970's and striving for energy self-sufficiency, Brazil is opening a large hydroelectric dam virtually every year. This nation with the greatest grid of rivers on earth has already built enough dams to provide for 95 percent of its electricity needs. And driven by a fast-growing population and the will to settle its immense spaces, Brazil has plans for at least 25 more dams. Such zeal has led critics at home and abroad to lament the great losses of land or undisturbed nature. Of the immense Balbina reservoir, which will produce only 250 megawatts, government experts have said that the size and the cost of the project are so enormous that the dam should never have been built. But here in the heart of the Amazon Basin, arguments have been overtaken as the Uatuma River is backing up and irrevocably flooding 600 square miles of jungle land. Racing ahead of the tides, archeologists have collected potsherds, stone axes and carved figures at 122 former Indian sites. They talked with excitement of finding a muiriquita, a small, rare stone carving that is linked to the legend of the Amazon female warriors. But they expressed regret about two caves, now flooded, that showed rock drawings in red, black and white. Only two small tribes of forest Indians, 105 Waimiri, lived near the reservoir area, and last year they were given new lands. In the meantime, their old hunting grounds have rapidly disappeared. As four canoes prodded among the drifting logs and leaves, the half-flooded jungle seemed like a haunted forest, with the tops of palm trees emerging from the water like giant bouquets. ''The land animals here have all fled or died,'' Dr. Melo said. ''We are looking for tree animals like primates, sloths, anteaters and felines.'' More than ever, he said, the | Balbina Journal; On Amazon Noah's Ark, All Aboard (Even Wasps) |
131906_2 | and the cost of the project are so enormous that the dam should never have been built. But here in the heart of the Amazon Basin, arguments have been overtaken as the Uatuma River is backing up and irrevocably flooding 600 square miles of jungle land. Racing ahead of the tides, archeologists have collected potsherds, stone axes and carved figures at 122 former Indian sites. They talked with excitement of finding a muiriquita, a small, rare stone carving that is linked to the legend of the Amazon female warriors. But they expressed regret about two caves, now flooded, that showed rock drawings in red, black and white. Only two small tribes of forest Indians, 105 Waimiri, lived near the reservoir area, and last year they were given new lands. In the meantime, their old hunting grounds have rapidly disappeared. As four canoes prodded among the drifting logs and leaves, the half-flooded jungle seemed like a haunted forest, with the tops of palm trees emerging from the water like giant bouquets. ''The land animals here have all fled or died,'' Dr. Melo said. ''We are looking for tree animals like primates, sloths, anteaters and felines.'' More than ever, he said, the treetops were brimming with insects, lizards, scorpions, tarantulas. Almost immediately this was underlined as the launch hit a stem and a rain of ants, spiders and bugs poured down on the occupants. Two furry spiders, the size of a saucer, were quickly put into jars. Big? No, that was nothing. Crew members had caught two stunning and glowing black beetles, larger than their own hands. ''Tianus Gigante,'' Dr. Melo said. ''The biggest beetle in the world.'' Estela Lazarina, a veterinarian at the dam's biological station, had earlier shown other captives that had not been freed: a pair of rodents that were altogether unknown, a tapir and a sloth with wounds that were being treated, and 20 healthy bushmasters, highly dangerous equatorial vipers up to four yards long. Some of the snakes, Dr. Lazarina said, would be used to prepare poison antidotes. Some Oppose Operation Whether rescuing and moving animals to other parts of a region is a desirable undertaking has been a matter of debate. Some scientists have argued that such operations disturb nature's balance and that animals are killed anyway as a greater population is forced to fight over territory, females or food. ''We may know more in a | Balbina Journal; On Amazon Noah's Ark, All Aboard (Even Wasps) |
124010_0 | LEAD: What the House and Senate passed separately added up to 2,000 pages of trouble. The trade bill, it's called, but anti-trade is more like it. Now the conference committees charged with reconciling the two versions have, encouragingly, started to hack away much of the blatant special-interest mischief. What the House and Senate passed separately added up to 2,000 pages of trouble. The trade bill, it's called, but anti-trade is more like it. Now the conference committees charged with reconciling the two versions have, encouragingly, started to hack away much of the blatant special-interest mischief. The conferees' tentative agreement sets a welcome tone and gives promise that nuisance provisions won't slip through unnoticed. But there's hard bargaining ahead to insure that the final bill is not destructively protectionist. Credit the good start to the chairmen of the two committees primarily responsible for trade, Representative Dan Rostenkowski and Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Both want a bill that President Reagan will sign, not a veto for Democrats to flog as a campaign issue. So far, so good. But this immense conference contains 17 subgroups, and only one has made real headway. Conferees are tackling the less fractious issues first. The provisions now slated for deletion include quotas on lamb imports and a $365 million rebate to sugar refiners - mainly three large companies -for tariffs paid years ago. The cleaned-up bill would also eliminate a counterproductive new enforcement regime against customs fraud. The Administration properly fought all these notions and opposes others yet to be resolved, including organized labor's demand for advance notice of plant closings and layoffs, registration of foreign investments in U.S. industry and harsh penalties against foreign companies that violate strategic export controls. Then comes the big stuff, none bigger than the Gephardt amendment, a wrongheaded scheme that underlies Representative Richard Gephardt's campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination. His proposal would curb trade in the false guise of saving American jobs. It would require stiff curbs on imports from countries with allegedly unfair import restrictions or export subsidies and big surpluses in their trade with the U.S. As written, the Gephardt amendment would surely provoke a veto. Messrs. Rostenkowski and Bentsen would rewrite it; Mr. Gephardt is open to negotiation. But there's no sign of a settlement yet and the conferees have put it off until they see how Mr. Gephardt fares in the Super Tuesday primaries. When the bill | Hacking Back the Trade Bill Weeds |
123838_0 | LEAD: Experts started work today to see if they could repair the damage to the Sphinx. Experts started work today to see if they could repair the damage to the Sphinx. Zahi Hawass, the archeologist in charge of the pyramids area, said samples were being taken of rock from the exposed interior of the Sphinx's shoulder and the piece that fell off. ''We are now doing analysis on the rock bits to know the degree of humidity, temperature, how strong or weak it is before we can do any restoration,'' he said. Workers were also due to clean the surface of the Sphinx's shoulder by scraping away accumulated salt crystals. Specialists have proposed fixing the shoulder, which split in two on hitting the ground, with stainless steel bars and a strong resin. | An Operation For The Sphinx |
123945_2 | for example, the heroin addiction rate on a per capita basis is about two-and-a-half times that of the United States. Despite the dire tones, the accompanying actions by the Administration today were rather mild. Although empowered by law to impose sanctions against drug-producing countries that are not fully cooperating in cracking down, President Reagan announced only mostly symbolic penalties against Panama, Afghanistan, Iran and Syria. A number of members of Congress have promised to go further and seek to penalize other countries, such as Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Haiti and the Bahamas, which were not penalized by Mr. Reagan. Coca Production Up 10% The report said that between 1986 and 1987 the production of coca, used to make cocaine, grew by more than 10 percent overall in the three traditional coca-growing countries, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. The global marijuana crop increased by 26 percent, and the opium crop by 18 percent. In 1986 there was a much-publicized effort in which American troops helped Bolvian authorities try to shut cocaine processing labs. But the report said cocaine trafficking surged again after the operation ended. Unless a safe and effective herbicide to eradicate the coca crop is developed and Latin American governments are persuaded to use it, production will continue to increase between 5 and 10 percent every year, predicted Ann B. Wrobleski, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Matters. President Reagan has no plans at the moment to impose other sanctions against Panama, such as a ban on flights to and from Panama or a 50 percent tax on imports from Panama, but will ''wait and see'' how events unfold, according to Ms. Wrobleski. Countries Fully Certified Seventeen other major drug-producing and drug-trafficking countries, including Mexico (the largest single country supplying both heroin and marijuana to the United States) and Colombia, which are faulted for failing to extradite cocaine traffickers to the United States and not attacking cocaine labs, were fully ''certified'' under the law and will not be penalized. Laos, Lebanon and Paraguay were faulted for not doing enough to combat drugs, but were certified because of overriding national interests. Laos has reportedly been more cooperative recently in helping recover bodies of Americans lost in the Vietnam war. The decision on Mexico is surprising since the country is criticized in the report for not doing more to combat drug trafficking. It also raises serious questions about the degree to which | U.S. FINDS OUTPUT OF DRUGS IN WORLD GROWING SHARPLY |
123926_1 | of human and lion whose worn and wind-whipped face is thought to depict the Pharaoh Chephren. As the wisdom goes, the huge monument is thought to guard the three pyramids of Giza close by, or to simulate the Pharaoh offering sacrifices to the sun god. Either way, it has stood since 2600 B.C., weathering excavations from the desert sands that have covered it, sometimes nearly burying its body. And across those millenniums, and in recent times, too, the great monument has been beset by woes. Since earlier falls of rock in 1981, an Egyptian team has been working at its restoration, reshaping parts of it with blocks of modern stone that contrast sharply - some say incompatibly so - with the weather-battered bulk of the monument. But the restoration, said to be 80 percent complete, has not shielded the monument from the ravages of wind-borne sand, and water, and pollution. Zahi Hawass, an archeologist in charge of the district embracing the Pyramids and the Sphinx at Giza, said a rising water table was gnawing away at the statue's limestone, while recent rain and sandstorms had battered its surface. Just before the latest fall of rock, a witness said, the Sphinx was lashed by a cruel sandstorm that seemed to help loosen the slabs that fell. Foreign Help Urged Dr. Hawass is one of those who contend the Sphinx is doomed unless scientists work out a way to save it. ''Maybe we will not find the Sphinx in the coming 20 years if we do not do this type of study'' he said in a recent television interview. ''We know that water changes limestone to powder.'' Egypt's Culture Minister, Farouk Hosni, has said an international committee of archeologists should be convened to work on the Sphinx's salvation. But that suggestion drew a tart response from Mr. Kadri, the former antiquities director, whose dispute with the minister precipitated his own downfall and whose department oversaw the restoration of the Sphinx. ''The Sphinx is facing no danger at all,'' he said. ''What fell was not a slab but an outer coating. This is a theatrical farce.'' The debate was woven, thus, from conflicting strands of nationalism: was it better to get foreigners to come and rescue a nation's history, or were Egyptians themselves better equipped to save their past from their present? Or was it all, some cynics asked, just over the complex | Cairo Journal; Now, After 4,600 Years, Time Adds a New Scar |
125627_0 | LEAD: A STEEP and surprisingly early increase in magnetic disturbances on the Sun in the last few months may herald a cycle of exceptionally intense solar radiation, and astronomers have warned that satellites in low orbits could face premature destruction as a result. A STEEP and surprisingly early increase in magnetic disturbances on the Sun in the last few months may herald a cycle of exceptionally intense solar radiation, and astronomers have warned that satellites in low orbits could face premature destruction as a result. Planners at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration say they have taken the warning seriously and are considering ways to protect two large scientific satellites that may be threatened. An unusually active Sun could also cause the premature re-entry of various Soviet satellites, including the abandoned space station Salyut 7. Because of the terrestrial problems that upheavals on the Sun can cause, astronomers have long sought ways to forecast solar weather, and in the last century, sunspots were found to have predictive value. In 1843 Heinrich Schwabe discovered by analysis of astronomical records that sunspot activity waxed and waned in cycles lasting approximately 11 years. In 1908 the American astronomer George Ellery Hale discovered by spectral analysis of the light emitted by sunspots that these phenomena are magnetic. It has since been learned that magnetic upheavals originating deep within the Sun at periodic intervals are responsible for flares, hot regions and other solar outbursts, in addition to sunspots. The effects of these events are felt on Earth. During peaks of solar activity, brilliant auroral displays often brighten night skies, and global radio communications are sometimes disrupted. Storms of electrically charged particles streaming to earth from the active Sun cause destructive surges in power lines and communication cables. It is unclear whether the increased radiation could have a biological effect. In recent decades, space engineers have come to realize that peaks in solar activity also reduce the life expectancy of satellites in low earth orbits. During peak periods, the solar radiation, especially ultraviolet rays, warms and stirs up earth's upper atmosphere, significantly increasing the density of the atmosphere even several hundred miles above the earth's surface. Thin though it is, this trace of atmospheric gas imposes friction on any satellite passing through it. A satellite, slowed by such drag, is forced to descend to ever lower orbits, eventually encountering atmosphere dense enough to destroy it. Although | The Sun Nears a Period of Intense Activity |
125655_1 | a joint venture. The talks collapsed in March 1987. Acquiring Firestone would give Pirelli a significant presence in the United States, something it has unsuccessfully sought for several years. The United States is attractive because it makes up nearly 45 percent of the world market. The push to obtain an American foothold has intensified with the weakness of the dollar, which has caused the price of foreign-made tires to increase, prompting foreign companies to build or buy manufacturing operations in this country. Bridgestone, the world's third-largest tire producer, after the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin of France, has sought control of the Firestone operations for much the same reason. The Japanese manufacturer also wants to establish a stronger foothold in Europe, where Firestone and Pirelli already have a strong presence. Gian Battista De Giorgi, Pirelli's chief executive, said the company would sell Firestone's network of 1,500 retail outlets, a Brazilian manufacturing plant and other non-tire operations to Michelin for $650 million if its bid were successful. Michelin would also have an option to purchase 50 percent of Firestone's synthetic-rubber and diversified-products operations in the United States, for about $150 million. For Pirelli, the world's seventh-largest tire maker, control of Firestone would fulfill its long-held goal of becoming a bigger player in an industry that has become increasingly global. In addition to its five tire and tube plants in the United States, Firestone has manufacturing operations in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil. ''It is important for us to be everywhere because our major customers, the automobile customers, are everywhere,'' Mr. De Giorgi said yesterday in an interview in New York. Some Call Bid Too High Some analysts said they considered Pirelli's $58-a-share offer a bit high. They also said there were rumors on Wall Street that Bridgestone might respond with a sweetened counteroffer. ''Based on last year's results, this bid comes to about 15 times earnings, which, given the record of this company, seems a little pricey,'' said W. Dudley Heer, an analyst with Duff & Phelps in Chicago. ''Let's face it, Firestone has not had the world's greatest record. When you take away all the gains and nonrecurring items, their return on equity has exceeded 10 percent only twice in the last decade.'' Harvey Heinbach, an analyst with Merrill Lynch Inc., said: ''Whether it's high or not depends on what you're | Pirelli Bids To Acquire Firestone |
131564_0 | LEAD: BORON, an element best known for its use as an eye wash and a roach killer, plays a critical role in the body's ability to use calcium to form bone, new research indicates. BORON, an element best known for its use as an eye wash and a roach killer, plays a critical role in the body's ability to use calcium to form bone, new research indicates. If further studies confirm the finding, they will establish boron as a ''new'' essential nutrient, to be added to the list of trace elements, those needed in tiny amounts in the diet for normal growth and development. The preliminary studies suggest that in women past menopause, boron may stimulate hormones, mimicking the effects of estrogen replacement therapy. Currently, estrogen treatment is the most effective method of preventing postmenopausal bone loss, which can lead to osteoporosis and debilitating fractures. Boron's potential role in nutrition was serendipitously discovered in the course of another study by two researchers for the Federal Department of Agriculture: Dr. Forrest H. Nielsen, a biochemist and director of the Human Nutrition Research Center in Grand Forks, N.D., and Dr. Curtiss D. Hunt, an anatomist at the center. They had been trying to unravel the role of arsenic in nutrition when the chicks they were studying had unexpected growth problems and developed leg abnormalities. Skeptical Reception The researchers found that lack of a previously unrecognized nutrient, boron, caused the problems. When boron was added to the chicks' diet, their bones developed normally as long as other factors critical to bone growth, such as activated vitamin D, were present. Dr. Nielsen and Dr. Hunt first presented their finding to an international meeting of nutrition researchers in Australia in 1981, and it was skeptically received. But the researchers were convinced that they were on to something important. They continued their research, first showing that boron was essential to normal growth in rats and then looking into its role in people. The human studies were done in a metabolic unit, where 12 postmenopausal women lived for six months, receiving all their food only from the nutrition center. In this way, the researchers precisely controlled each participant's diet. When boron intake was increased from one-fourth of a milligram to three milligrams a day, there was a marked decline in the urinary loss of calcium and magnesium, an indirect measure of how much of these minerals was | Boron Said to Be Crucial to Bone Formation |
129975_1 | extract plutonium, a main ingredient in nuclear weapons, according to Administration officials. The move came following pressure from the United States. A1 An Armenian reporter for Pravda has disavowed an article published in the official Soviet newspaper over hissignature, an article that dashed Armenian hopes for a favorable resolution of territorial demands. A1 Francois Mitterrand will run for a second seven-year presidential mandate, he said in a brief television interview. The announcment by Mr. Mitterrand, a 71-year-old Socialist, ended months of speculation. A3 News analysis: The Iran-Iraq war has become focused on offensives far from the major battlefronts on land that Teheran views as decisive in determining the eventual outcome. A6 U.S. sues to shut P.L.O. mission to the U.N. A3 Timbuktu journal: Sadly, desert nomads cultivate their garden A4 Border dispute called obstacle in Afghan talks A6 Senators worry about arms treaty verification A8 U.S. officials dismiss Noriega offer A10 American troops will stay 10 more days in Honduras A10 Gunmen at Belfast funeral attack charged in six murders A11 NATIONAL A16-21, B10, D26 Congress overrode a Reagan veto of a major civil rights bill by large margins, creating a possibly potent election-year issue for Democratic candidates. The votes rebuffed an intense 11th-hour campaign by opponents to the bill to sustain Mr. Reagan. A1 Data from Nazi experiments on concentration camp prisoners will not be used in a United States Government study on the effects of a toxic gas, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency has ruled. A1 A long-simmering insurance dispute between state governments and the insurance industry involving the reduction or elimination of commercial liability coverage for local governments is the subject of an antitrust suit filed in San Francisco. A1 Higher postage rates will begin on April 3. The Postal Service, with a pledge of better service, said that the new rates, including a 25-cent charge for first-class letters, reflected higher costs of delivering mail. D26 A woman has accused the F.B.I. of trying to coerce her into making false statements about a black F.B.I. agent whose allegations of racism in the bureau have been upheld by two Government agencies. A16 New cult town upsets people near Yellowstone Park A16 Air Force questions 1984 Agent Orange study A19 POLITICS A21 The battle for the superdelegates in the Democratic Party is now in full fury. They are the governors, members of Congress and the Democratic National | NEWS SUMMARY |
129874_1 | at a modest price. The school began admitting women in the early 70's. This year's tuition and fees remain relatively low at $6,450, up from 6,100 in 1986. Next fall the cost will be $6,900. But as its former pool of students has dwindled, the college has been left trying to adapt to the tastes and pocketbooks of the new groups. The college's new president, Brother Thomas J. Scanlan, installed last July, is the leader of the college's attempt to change. To date, he is also the most visible reflection of that change. Though many previous presidents were distinguished theologians, Brother Scanlan's expertise is in finance and management. His master's degree is in business, his doctorate in organizational behavior. Student Internships and Aid The large hall outside the president's office is lined with portraits of former students who became bishops, but inside, Brother Scanlan talks of development and demographics. The students Manhattan College is pursuing are the products of New York's shift toward a service-based economy, Brother Scanlan said. ''The economy has led to a bipolarization of society and students have become either very wealthy or very poor,'' he said. Underprivileged and minority-group students who meet the college's admission standards are frequently recruited by several schools, he said. In such a competition, Manhattan College often loses out to public colleges with low tuitions and wealthy universities that offer lavish financial aid. Along with offering better financial aid, the college seeks to attract underprivileged students with internship programs that provide entryways to jobs in finance and industry. To create those internships, Manhattan College is turning to New York's businesses and to the school's considerable share of successful alumni, which includes Rudolph W. Giuliani, the United States Attorney in Manhattan; James J. Dunn, publisher of Forbes Magazine, and Frederic Salerno, president of New York Telephone. Demand for Rooms on Campus Last fall, the college organized for its students a nine-session program, ''Wall Street Careers: The Manhattan College Connection,'' which included 15 Wall Street leaders, all of them college alumni. The school is also finding that students, especially those paying full tuition, have their own desires. Though in the past most of the college's students commuted to the school, more students now insist on living on campus - far from home or at least outside the telephone area code. For the college, which has 4,108 students, that has meant building more dormitories, a | Education; Manhattan College Seeks a New Kind of Student |
127638_0 | LEAD: A campaign to eradicate polio, which remains a crippler and killer in many developing countries, gained new impetus this weekend at a global meeting on child health. A campaign to eradicate polio, which remains a crippler and killer in many developing countries, gained new impetus this weekend at a global meeting on child health. Prospects for eradicating the disease by the year 2000 were enhanced by the announcement here by China's health minister, Dr. Chen Mingzhang, that his country is interested in joining the campaign. Dr. Mingzhang was among about 75 experts on child health, including the heads of various United Nations agencies and health ministers from several countries, who gathered for a three-day conference here at the Tufts University European Center. It was convened by the Task Force for Child Survival, whose members are the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the U.N. Development Program and the Rockefeller Foundation. Consensus on Polio A consensus emerged at the conference that the goal of eradicating polio is attainable. The disease has already been almost eliminated from North America, and the campaign to halt it in Latin America by 1991 is going well. The experts who gathered here in a stone monastery in the French Alps also discussed ways to increase the incentives for private companies to produce new vaccines. Dr. Donald A. Henderson, who ran the W.H.O. program that eliminated smallpox and is now dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore, said a better form of polio vaccine would be necessary to meet the 2000 deadline in Africa, where storage and other problems are acute. ''But if we really put our minds to this with the research necessary to improve the vaccine, I think polio can go the same way as smallpox,'' he said. The experts said they expect major improvements in the types and variety of vaccines available to protect the world's children. Scientists are now perfecting vaccines, made by genetic manipulation, that could offer protection against 10 to 15 different diseases at once. Political Support The experts were also encouraged by growing political support for vaccination. ''There is tremendous interest now by governments in immunization,'' Dr. Henderson said. ''This is far greater than anything we knew during the smallpox campaign.'' As its wider goal for the year 2000, the task force aims to reduce by at | Global Defeat of Polio Is Feasible, Experts Say |
127653_6 | But when exposed to industrial conditions, they tend to degrade. Scientists at Genentech Inc., the South San Francisco biotechnology company, have modified subtilisin, a bacterial protein used in detergents, to make it last longer in the presence of bleach. One amino acid, known as methionine, which is in a crucial position in the protein, tends to oxidize, rendering the protein ineffective. So Genentech substituted a different amino acid, chosen strictly by trial and error, in that one location. The Cetus Corporation in Emeryville, Calif., is producing mutated proteins it calls ''muteins'' for use as drugs. For instance, the company hopes to market beta interferon, a human protein, as a cancer drug. But when produced by genetically modified bacteria or yeast, the protein is often not folded correctly. Again, substituting a single amino acid solves the problem. Cetus believes that the muteins, since they are not the same as the natural protein, will be easier to protect by patents. A company called Biopolymers Inc. in Farmington, Conn., is trying to modify a protein secreted by mussels that allows them to cling to surfaces under water. The company hopes to come up with a family of proteins that can be used as adhesives after surgery. The General Electric Company has been experimenting with proteins that bind to metals, which could possibly be used in removing toxic metals from wastewater. Tool in Drug Design Some scientists believe the biggest payoff of protein engineering will be as a tool for making conventional drugs, rather than directly for drugs. The idea is to use knowledge of the shape of a particular protein of a disease agent to make a simple molecule to mesh with it, key to lock, and interfere with its function. The process represents a great leap forward from simply screening thousands of different substances to see if one works - the way drugs have typically been found. The biggest success so far has been Capoten, a drug for combating high blood pressure that was developed by Squibb several years ago. Squibb researchers knew that a protein called angiotensin-converting enzyme was involved in increasing blood pressure. They made a knowledgeable guess about the enzyme's shape and designed a small molecule that meshed with that shape, preventing the enzyme from working. Agouron Pharmaceuticals of San Diego is trying to develop a cancer drug that works by inhibiting an enzyme that plays a key role | Genetic Engineers Prepare to Create Brand New Proteins |
127646_1 | the world. The project marks the first time a private environmental organization has tried to preserve land in an entire river valley running through different states. ''These lands are the remnants of lands that have never been touched, lands that look like they did 300 or 400 years ago,'' said David L. Reynolds, director of development and communications for the conservancy's Connecticut chapter. According to the conservancy, the Connecticut River is the only major river in the United States without a large city at its mouth. A large sandbar there has impeded navigation and has tended to limit development along its banks. But soaring land prices in recreational and tourist areas across New England are putting pressure on the valley, adding to the sense of urgency surrounding the project. ''We want to help focus attention on how natural areas in New England are disappearing,'' said Dennis B. Wolkoff, a vice president and the eastern regional director of the conservancy.''These areas are truly irreplaceable,'' Mr. Reynolds added. ''It's wonderful,'' said James S. Hoyte, the Massachusetts Secretary of Environmental Affairs. ''Land in Massachusetts is very hot and if you don't keep it open space, you lose it.'' The conservancy estimates that the sites would fetch $40 million on the open market but hopes that landowners will offer some parcels as gifts or at bargain prices and that state or Federal governments will provide assistance, financial or legislative, if called on. The group is in the process of raising $10.3 million for the project. Of that, $6.5 million would be used to purchase 102 sites from the river's headwaters in New Hampshire to its mouth at Griswold Point in Old Lyme, Conn. The remaining $3.8 million will be set aside as a kind of endowment to finance the stewardship of the properties. Aid to the Government The effort to save the Connecticut valley is one of the more ambitious projects of the Nature Conservancy, which has such formidable financial clout that it even helps the Federal Government with preservation. The group sometimes buys property that Congress is considering for purchase but that could quickly be sold to developers. Then, once Congress appropriates the money, the group sells the land to the Federal Government at no profit. This was the case with two of the four sites making up the 158-acre Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge, established last year by the United States | Ambitious Project Will Buy Land To Preserve the Connecticut River |
127701_1 | jail and suggests that all countries and, indeed, all families are barriers to the true brotherhood of man. The bride and groom listen with eyes lowered, as if this were the sort of thing every bride and groom expected to hear on their wedding day. ''The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On'' will be shown at the Museum of Modern Art at 8:30 tonight and 6 P.M. tomorrow. From everything the audience sees, Kenzo Okuzaki is a certifiable psychotic, though ''The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On'' never addresses this suspicion. He's the sort of fellow who writes long, crazily incoherent letters to editors, confronts people on street corners and harangues them with a loudspeaker from his van. It could be that Mr. Hara thinks the psychotic state is the only sane response to the contradictions in contemporary Japanese society. Whatever the film director thinks, he never says. Instead he follows Kenzo around Japan as the former soldier tries to get at the truth of something that happened more than 40 years ago - the execution of three of his army comrades when they were serving in New Guinea at the end of the war. The audience never understands just why, at this late date, Kenzo decides to investigate these events, the details of which remain fuzzy. With Mr. Hara and a camera crew in tow, Kenzo calls on former officers and enlisted men he thinks were responsible for ordering the executions. There are suggestions that the men were condemned for desertion or for cannibalism. There's the further suggestion that they were executed to provide meat for their starving comrades. Some of those interviewed treat Kenzo with respect and attempt to answer his questions. Others equivocate. Some contradict themselves. Through all the testimony, Kenzo behaves as if he had been appointed by God to act as His prosecuting attorney. At one point he starts beating an old man who is sick, while the old man's wife pleads: ''No violence. No violence.'' The farce becomes dark and disorienting. The cops are frequently called, and Kenzo often has to admit that there are some circumstances in which violence is called for. He says it with the stoicism of the true fanatic. At one point he decides he'd like to have his own jail cell in his house and drives off to the Kobe prison to get the measurements. When he's not allowed in, he | Review/Film; Japanese Psychotic Gets His Wish: Return to Jail |
127623_0 | LEAD: AS a total eclipse of the sun sweeps across the Pacific Ocean Saturday, astronomers aboard two cruise ships will try to record images of ''shadow bands,'' a phenomenon that has often been reported during eclipses but never photographed. AS a total eclipse of the sun sweeps across the Pacific Ocean Saturday, astronomers aboard two cruise ships will try to record images of ''shadow bands,'' a phenomenon that has often been reported during eclipses but never photographed. Dr. Kenneth Brecher of Boston University, one of the astronomers who will make the attempt, likened the quest for tangible evidence of the elusive shadow bands to ''catching a unicorn.'' Despite the uncertainties of the undertaking, he persuaded the Cunard Line Ltd. to divert the Queen Elizabeth 2 from its scheduled world cruise route to a site between Sumatra and Borneo so that he and his colleagues could bring their instruments to bear on the phenomenon. Shadow bands have been described as dark stripes several inches wide that sweep over land or water at the onset and conclusion of a total eclipse. ''They are counterparts of the rippling shadows one sees on the floor of a swimming pool,'' Dr. Brecher said in an interview. ''They are caused by refraction of the moon's shadow as it passes through ripples in turbulent atmosphere.'' Most experienced eclipse observers claim to have seen the shadow bands at least once, but none has ever obtained photographs of them. The bands are too narrow and faint to be captured by still cameras, Dr. Brecher believes, and are smeared in movie film exposed at normal speeds. Dr. Brecher and his colleagues therefore intend to use high-resolution video cameras equipped with sensitive charge-coupled-device chips. ''The recording will be digitized,'' he said, ''allowing us to process the images to remove noise and enhance contrast.'' Dr. Brecher plans to enlist the help of the 2,000 passengers aboard the QE2 in watching for the shadow bands and other eclipse phenomena. ''The weather outlook in the region is only fair,'' he said, ''and there's a strong possibility that even by steering away from cloud formations, we'll miss the eclipse.'' A Second Ship To improve the odds, another group of shadow-band hunters plan to take up station 1,000 miles east of the QE2 aboard another cruise ship, the Royal Cruise Line's Golden Odyssey. ''By making this a two-ship operation with guidance from Dr. Edward Brooks, one | Scientists to Seek 'Shadow Bands' During a Total Eclipse of the Sun |
127791_3 | Authority,'' Mr. Huerta said. The Port Authority spent $17.5 million to purchase huge new cranes and demolish outdated storage sheds. U.S. Lines remained in New York. But when oil prices dropped and competing lines offered shippers faster service on smaller but speedier ships, the company was badly hurt. By November 1986, U.S. Lines had amassed losses of $237 million for that year and filed for bankruptcy, idling 2,000 employees and 400 longshoremen. The Port Authority continued paying the rent for at least six months, then stopped, according to the city. After trying for nine months to collect, the city decided to press the issue yesterday by filing a notice of claim. The action essentially is the required first step to a lawsuit. The last time the city filed such a claim against the Port Authority, officials said, was in a dispute over payments in lieu of taxes at the World Trade Center. In the current claim, the Port Authority has 60 days to respond and pay the rent, or a lawsuit will be filed. Trouble Finding Tenants Beyond the rent, Mr. Huerta said the city has been dissatisfied with the Port Authority's effort to attract a new tenant for Howland Hook. He said the agency has been unwilling to discount the rent to entice a new shipping company. Mr. O'Malley responded that negotiations have been under way for some time with a number of cargo handlers, but no commitments have been made. Mr. Huerta said he has long complained about the Port Authority's eagerness to invest in New Jersey's waterfront. For example, the Port Authority last year began work on a $31 million processing center for imported automobiles in Jersey City. ''This is a very sore point with us,'' Mr. Huerta said. ''If we have hundreds of acres of vacant terminals in New York, why on earth do they spend millions to develop more land in New Jersey? It's ludicrous.'' Stephen Berger, executive director of the Port Authority, said that automobile importers were shown Howland Hook, but ''they didn't want to be there.'' ''The fact of the matter is that the city is raising issues which have no economic basis,'' said Mr. Berger. ''They know it, and I really get tired of hearing what are silly political discussions.'' He added, ''If I could have perfect balance between the two states I'd love it, because I would never have a problem.'' | City Steps Up Fight for $4 Million In Back Rent From Port Authority |
130845_3 | fatal crashes. This was in contrast to 1980 and 1986, when there were no fatal accidents. But one year plagued with airline accidents doesn't mean the skies are becoming less safe. Indeed, aviation experts report that air travel has grown steadily safer since the dawn of the jet transport age in 1959. When statistics are measured over longer periods, such as the last decade, during which the total number of flights within the United States increased nearly 50 percent, fatality rates are fairly constant. The N.T.S.B.'s statistics for recent years show only minor fluctuations in deaths per million miles flown, deaths per 100,000 hours of flight and deaths per 100,000 flights. Increasingly, the cause of fatal crashes worldwide is pilot error. Boeing, the airplane manufacturer, found in a recent study that 65 percent of all jet transport accidents from 1959 to 1986 have been attributed to errors by flight crews. Airline researchers agree that such errors are common. As aviation safety experts seek ways to reduce pilot mistakes, they are focusing more and more on pilot training, on initial instruction as well as the retraining of experienced airline pilots. Two- and three-man airline flight crews, aviation psychologists are discovering, often don't work well together. To correct this, they are urging changes in training procedures. One of the new concepts they have introduced is an approach called cockpit resource management, which teaches pilots to work together so that an unexpected cascade of small problems on a flight doesn't escalate into a catastrophe. While encouraging the new training concepts, the Federal Aviation Administration has not moved to require them of the carriers and only a handful of airlines have fully embraced the new ideas. Meanwhile, the demand for airline pilots is projected to grow steadily as the air transport industry expands, while the experience level of the typical airline pilot is expected to fall, even as new generations of airliners become steadily more complicated to fly. At the same time, fewer and fewer new airline pilots are coming from the military - a traditional source of highly experienced jet pilots - because the armed services have fewer pilots and are holding on to them longer. Most significantly, perhaps, these trends come at a time when aviation psychologists have begun to raise fundamental questions about the design and use of the high-tech autopilots and computerized flight-control systems that encourage pilots to become passive | The Airlines Tackle Pilot Error |
131036_1 | fertilizer. Little is heard now of the concerns expressed by scientists in the early days of biotechnology. Citing potential dangers, leading scientists in 1974 called a halt to certain experiments involving cancer viruses and disease organisms, and a meeting of researchers the following year at Asilomar, near Monterey, Calif., led to the National Institutes of Health establishing safety guidelines for the work. While these rules -binding on all Government-funded research and reportedly followed voluntarily by industry - remain in effect, they have been greatly relaxed over the years. However, some critics say, dangers still exist, such as inadvertently creating disease organisms for which humans or animals have no defense. Practitioners of the technology discount the possibility of such an accident. But what if it's no accident? Couldn't an organism that selectively produces disease or sheds toxins that sicken people or plants be useful -as a weapon? The new technology could revolutionize the old idea of biological warfare. As is noted in ''Gene Wars,'' using disease to vanquish an enemy has come a long way from the days of hurling the bodies of plague victims over a foe's ramparts or poisoning a well with the carcass of an animal. The journalist Charles Piller and Keith R. Yamamoto, a molecular biologist at the University of California, San Francisco, say that genetic engineering may be the perfect tool for building the ultimate germ weapon, ''unstoppable by its victims, yet controllable by its maker.'' But aren't the United States, the Soviet Union and most other countries supposed to be out of the germ warfare business? Along with more than 100 other nations, the major powers ratified the 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibiting the use of poison gas and bacteriological weapons. They also signed the 1972 Biological Warfare Convention, which prohibits developing, producing or stockpiling microbial or other biological agents or toxins. The authors argue, however, that there is less to these treaties than many people believe and that the United States and others continue biological warfare work under the guise of research aimed at defending themselves not only against such warfare, but against clandestine research that would put them at a defensive disadvantage. ''The difference between offense and defense is purely a matter of intent,'' the authors note. Defensive work requires mastering potential war organisms, developing capabilities to store and test them, examining methods of detecting and controlling them and finding methods of protecting troops | The Perfect Tool for Killing |
130905_0 | LEAD: FOR the last several years, only an architectural detective would have noticed the building. Since the early 80's it has been boarded up, completely concealed under a uniform coat of white paint. But in the last year or so, the paint has peeled off, revealing a minor masterpiece of the 1930's, the Art Deco General Tire Building at 602 West 57th FOR the last several years, only an architectural detective would have noticed the building. Since the early 80's it has been boarded up, completely concealed under a uniform coat of white paint. But in the last year or so, the paint has peeled off, revealing a minor masterpiece of the 1930's, the Art Deco General Tire Building at 602 West 57th Street. Apparently passed over by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the one-story building occupies a large site in the middle of a 45,000-square-foot assemblage of garages and other low buildings, only a few blocks from the sites of such major projects as the huge office building planned for Columbus Circle. Carriage makers and automobile companies first clustered along Broadway in the Times Square area, but by the 1910's, the pressure of theater development forced them north on Broadway, and in some cases west. By the 1920's, General Motors, Peerless, White and Republic all had service stations or workshops on 57th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues. In 1927, the General Tire and Rubber Company signed a 10-year lease, with options to renew, with the Appleby Estate, the owner of an L-shaped plot wrapping around the southwest corner of 57th Street and 11th Avenue. General Tire, founded in 1915 in Akron, Ohio, entered a field of more than 300 tire-producing companies by supplying replacement tires rather than original equipment. It is not clear how the company first used the site, but it apparently occupied several existing structures. The Depression slowed business everywhere, but by 1932, General Tire celebrated a return to full production in its Akron plant. In 1934, it opted to sell to vehicle manufactures in an agreement with International Harvester. And in July 1935, General Tire filed plans for a one-story shop at 602 West 57th Street. The engineer-architects, Francisco & Jacobus, had developed a scheme for a reinforced concrete building with a great expanse of factory windows, unusual in only one respect: The exterior was covered in colored enameled metal panels. Like terra cotta and glass | STREETSCAPES: General Tire Building; 'Gas Station' Style: An Overlooked Gem of the 1930's |
131171_2 | turning over to the authorities any unused tapes of the soldiers' slayings. Even more dominant was the attention invested in what to do about the paramilitary flourishes at I.R.A. funerals. The Royal Ulster Constabulary, the Northern Ireland police force, finally decided to end its low-profile experiment and move back toward heavy security at funerals, a step critics warned would probably mean more of the graveside scuffling over I.R.A. salutes and emblematic paraphernalia that so often reduced humble solemnity to morbid Irish self-parody in the eyes of the world. Bigoted Outbursts Tom King, the Thatcher Government's harried but resilient Secretary for Northern Ireland, cried out in frustration in Parliament at the need to dwell on such a mundane rite as if it were a battlefield strategem, which indeed it has become. Mr. King has the job that has made and broken countless English politicians across the centuries and he was careful, in the heat of mourning, anger and some vindictiveness discernible in the House of Commons, to work at maintaining his strategic balance. He bothered to note, for example, amid bigoted outbursts in some parts of the tabloid press, that most Irish are peaceful and opposed to the I.R.A. And when the Northern Ireland representatives of the Protestant loyalist majority called for harsher measures against the Catholic nationalist minority, he pointedly urged them to fill the political vacuum ''that breeds violence'' and end their own political boycott of the increasingly fragile agreement between Britain and Ireland. This is the two-year-old pact between governments that seeks sectarian compromise and has effectively deprived the loyalist politicians of their veto power over British initiatives in their homeland. The problem is that no glimmer of practical hope for dialogue has arisen so far from the pact, one reason why the politicians are left dwelling on symptoms of violence. Significantly, the latest opinion polls are measuring the British public's increasing frustration with the lethal status quo: Fifty percent of Britons now prefer that British troops be removed from Northern Ireland either immediately or within a set time limit, according to a new Mori poll for The Economist magazine. More important, little more than one in four thinks the province should remain part of the United Kingdom. Mr. King, undoubtedly tracking this mood, is said to be preparing a kind of shuttle initiative to try and end the loyalists' intransigence toward talking informally with more willing moderate | OFFICIAL BELFAST BUSIES ITSELF WITH THE SIDE ISSUES OF STRIFE |
131057_5 | the psychic medicine, as well as with medically naive readers who carry the message to unwarranted extremes. It is likely that these are the same people who, upon learning that nutrients in certain foods may protect against cancer, would start taking megadoses of the nutrients instead of eating the right foods. What, then, can be said of the many books now pushing mind over matter? If you are looking for a well-documented and clearly written overview of current thinking in the field (complete with an extensive scientific bibliography), start with WHO GETS SICK by Blair Justice (407 pp., Jeremy P. Tarcher, $17.95). The work, subtitled ''How Beliefs, Moods, and Thoughts Can Affect Your Health,'' is by a science writer and psychologist who now teaches courses on the biopsychosocial bases of health at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. Mr. Justice recognizes not just that there is more to disease than germs, but that there is also more than mind. His book, while clearly written for a lay audience, can and should also have wide appeal to health professionals. For in clear, well-documented prose, it provides a path through the mind-body maze, ending with an honest and persuasive discussion of the possibilities and the limitations of manipulating the mind to prevent and treat physical illness. Mr. Justice's writing is exceptionally crisp and easy to follow, which is no surprise since the author was a newspaper medical writer and science editor before he became a psychologist. Also excellent as an overall yet detailed guide to the field is THE HEALER WITHIN by Steven Locke and Douglas Colligan (272 pp., Dutton, $22.50; 314 pp., New American Library/Mentor, Paper, $4.95). Dr. Locke, the associate director of the psychiatry consultation service at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and a teacher at the Harvard Medical School, is a mainstream leader in behavioral medicine who has kept a scientific perspective on the subject and earned the respect of even the most hardened somaticists. The authors (Mr. Colligan is a senior editor at Omni magazine) are properly cautious about ''pushing psychoneuroimmunology into the mainstream of medicine.'' They see that already ''many people in their enthusiasm too quickly embrace what are touted as the principles of PNI in the unrelated and sometimes dangerous therapeutic practice known as holistic medicine.'' Nonetheless the reader will come away with an appreciation for the scientifically documented healing power of the | MIND OVER DISEASE: CAN HAPPY THOUGHTS HEAL? |
131110_0 | LEAD: The Feb. 21 article about the Little Village School did a pretty good job of portraying all handicapped children as being helpless and without any hope for a normal life. While it started out as sounding positive with the title ''Here, Small Steps of Hope,'' by the time one was finished reading it, it seemed like a hopeless tale of woe. The Feb. 21 article about the Little Village School did a pretty good job of portraying all handicapped children as being helpless and without any hope for a normal life. While it started out as sounding positive with the title ''Here, Small Steps of Hope,'' by the time one was finished reading it, it seemed like a hopeless tale of woe. The writer, while sympathetic, never mentioned the fact that several children each year graduate from Little Village and are in fact mainstreamed into their own school districts' grammar school programs. And while there are those like the little boy with no hope (who just happens to be my son), there are those who go on from Little Village to quite normal school settings. Children with cerebral palsy, whose only handicap is a slower than average gait; then there's the speech-delayed child, whose only problem vanishes when the appropriate therapy is received. These certainly should not have been portrayed as they were. As for having a child who is fortunate enough to have a school like Little Village, believe me, there are many worse things. The writer left feeling he had no problems. Well, he couldn't have children. Normal children (and I have four of those, besides the little boy with no hope) can be a lot more trouble than handicapped ones. At least the day will never come that I have to worry if Scott is driving drunk, or taking drugs, or any of the other great feats of normalcy. I honestly feel that an article should be done about all the positives of Little Village. How Barbara Feingold and Caryl Bank grew Little Village to the miracle that it is today. Children learn to walk and talk and find their way into society from the love and understanding they are given by Little Village Staff. Handicapped children are not to be pitied, but to be admired for the great hurdles that they must and most times do overcome. PAT CAHILL North Valley Stream | SCHOOL FOR HANDICAPPED WORKS MIRACLES OF HOPE |
131064_15 | this kind, if too insistently and successfully reiterated - ''Justine'' sold six editions in its first two years in print - Sade today, I am afraid, would not remain a free man indefinitely. Suppose we could bring back some of Sade's contemporaries. Rousseau the novelist would still thrill us if he could work among us, provided he made some concessions to modern usage. But I truly doubt that anyone would take him seriously as the political scientist, sociologist and philosopher that he fancied he was. Diderot, ''the father of witty conversation,'' might make it big on the lecture circuit, but academicians would spurn him for losing time in trifles. Dr. Johnson would have some following, but I am afraid he would not reach a mass audience. Television would be out of the question for the good doctor. Why, with all that winking, lip-smacking, snorting and shoulder-shrugging, he would never be as successful as our well-groomed TV personalities. Voltaire, of course, could do anything. He would thrill us and instruct us and amuse us. The problem is, overly preoccupied with the church, he would continue thundering about irrationality in Christian doctrine, and critics would ask why such a genius insists on wasting his talents on topics that are no longer ''relevant.'' Sade alone would terrify. For Sade alone would stand apart from all these great men, and in the isolation of his cell (for, surely, we would imprison him) would continue distilling the nihilistic tenets of a philosophy whose central tenet simply says Le prochain ne m'est rien - the brotherhood of man means nothing to me. ''Man is alone in the world. All creatures are born in isolation, and without any need for each other,'' he insisted. The only possible relationship Sade admits is that of crime, or of carnal concupiscence. Two centuries after Sade, we have continued to repeat to ourselves that a larger plan integrates all people into the universal community and rules, or ought to rule, their behavior. But we have behaved as if such a link did not really exist. We have stood indifferent to genocide in Germany, while it occurred, and to mass extermination in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, to name only a few recent hecatombs. It is worthy of note that while the carnage was going on, we felt, in all candor, quite at ease. The record will show that the entire world looked | THE DANGEROUS MARQUIS DE SADE |
131172_0 | LEAD: WITH audience after audience in recent months, Governor Cuomo has wasted little time getting to one of his favorite topics: Liberty Scholarships. ''It can catch on all over the U.S.,'' Mr. Cuomo said in a speech to 350 Hispanic leaders earlier this month, ''and everywhere I talk about it, I have people say to me on the way out of the room, 'Mario, stay with it. WITH audience after audience in recent months, Governor Cuomo has wasted little time getting to one of his favorite topics: Liberty Scholarships. ''It can catch on all over the U.S.,'' Mr. Cuomo said in a speech to 350 Hispanic leaders earlier this month, ''and everywhere I talk about it, I have people say to me on the way out of the room, 'Mario, stay with it.' '' Mr. Cuomo seems determined to do just that. In the two months since he proposed the plan to provide college grants for students from low-income families, Mr. Cuomo has mentioned it whenever he could - at a banquet for state business leaders last week, at the Black and Hispanic Legislative Caucus in February, at a session with the lawyers for Tawana Brawley, the black Dutchess County teen-ager who says she was the victim of a racial and sexual attack. Perhaps more than most of his proposals this year, the program has an emotional meaning for the Governor, who often says that he could not have got where he is without going to college. His goal is to reach ''every poor kid who's sitting there wondering what's the point of staying through high school.'' Critics complain, however, that the program is poorly conceived and, because of its size, potentially unworkable. The plan is designed to help close the gap between college costs and the maximum aid available through the Federal Pell grants, which provide $2,200 a year to three million low- and middle-income students, and the state Tuition Assistance Program, which provides grants ranging from $350 to $2,850 a year to students whose parents' net taxable income for state tax purposes is no more than $32,000. Potential Liberty Scholars would be chosen in the seventh grade. It is expected that about 25,000 of the state's 217,000 seventh graders would meet the academic, residency and income requirements. The grants would range up to $2,000, depending on the college, which could be SUNY or CUNY or one of the | THE POLITICS OF CUOMO'S COLLEGE AID PLAN |
130846_1 | the vultures were reassuring. Baja's tip used to be known as a sparsely populated place where cactus dramatically meets the sea. But I'd heard that Los Cabos, as the area surrounding Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, the two small cities near this land's end, is sometimes called, was changing rapidly, that se vende, or for sale, signs, were everywhere, and that anyone who wanted to see the starkly beautiful desert country described in several books by the naturalist Joseph Wood Krutch, the ferociously alive sea's edge observed by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts in ''The Log of the Sea of Cortez,'' had better go quickly. The vultures guaranteed nothing - there are vultures outside of Tijuana - but their slow gliding circles were reminders of rhythms both soft and relentless, of cycles of decay and life and death. Krutch called one of his books ''The Forgotten Peninsula,'' and for a long time Baja California was forgotten, by the United States anyway, not valuable enough to be a sticking point in the 1848 negotiations with Mexico for Alta California, which had gold and some semblance of civilization. Baja California was an arid rocky place with almost no people, thanks to the padres or the soldiers who accompanied them, who gave the natives smallpox and syphilis. It also had few conventional incentives for development, except natural beauty, and that of a kind less appreciated in those days. The land is beautiful, not freakishly beautiful like some American national parks, but quietly beautiful, almost gently so, a sort of tropical Arizona (it is part of the same desert, the Sonoran), bordered by the sea. Roughly 800 miles long and 30 to 145 miles wide, this leg of land separated from mainland Mexico millions of years ago in tremors originating from the south end of the San Andreas Fault. South of the Tropic of Cancer the peninsula turns truly tropical, softer, technically tropical thorn scrub rather than desert, its dryness moderated by occasional heavy rain. Though the primary vegetation is still cactuses - cardon and pitahaya and cholla - there is moisture enough to support a few small trees, some shrubs and flowering vines. There are forests of cardon, a cactus that resembles the saguaro and grows as high as 50 feet, forests that have no darkness because cactuses have no leaves. After rain, sometimes they blossom a creamy white. There | Where The Cactus Meets the Sea |
124829_4 | out since December,'' said Martinho Tavares, a reporter for the newspaper. ''The Soviet Union gave us printing machinery, but it never worked.' At Sao Tome's colonial-era ''mercado municipal,'' the picturesque scene of market women tending wooden stalls is actually an African facade masking extensive foreign aid. Despite the island's rich volcanic soil and abundant rainfall, Sao Tome imported half of its food needs last year. Foreign donations accounted for three quarters of these imports - 7,250 tons of flour, rice, powdered milk, dried fish, vegetable oil, and sugar. Food Dependent on Aid At the market, foreign aid is not only behind the fresh fish, but also behind the fresh vegetables - cabbage, radish, lettuce, eggplant and tomatoes. Before independence, the colonial authorities discouraged local food production. Sao Tomeans mostly worked on the cocoa and coffee plantations, and food was imported. After independence, cocoa production dropped sharply - from 10,000 tons a year in 1974 to 3,000 tons in 1987. Unable to import food, the Government asked for foreign aid. In 1982 France opened Mesquita, a demonstration farm. Five years later, about 2,000 Sao Tomean peasants had learned truck farming techniques at the farm. ''Thanks to Mesquita, we no longer import vegetables,'' said Frederic Fullenwarth, who directs France's $5 million aid program here. Many Farms Programs Three other aid agencies are investing a total of $17 million to help Sao Tome achieve food self-sufficiency in coffee, sugar and palm cooking oil. A United Nations program helps islanders rebuild pig and cattle herds, which were slaughtered and eaten after independence. Another United Nations program teaches peasants how to raise chickens, ducks and rabbits. To restore the mainstay of the economy, several aid agencies have adopted cocoa plantations. Sao Tome's Government, which was initially Marxist, has now adopted a policy of putting the 15 largest plantations in private hands. The limited American aid - about $100,000 a year - largely contributes to reactivating the cocoa plantations. Some foreigners here attribute the food shortages to local lethargy. 'You Need a Little Labor' ''Everything grows here - what you need is a little labor,'' an official at the Soviet Embassy said. Indeed, when a local taxi driver was asked why potholes riddle the roads here, he responded that the African Development Bank had not released a multi-million dollar loan for road repair. When a visitor suggested that the Sao Tomean Government could organize road gangs | For African Island Nation, Foreign Aid Is a Lifeline |
125070_1 | being caught when I arrived at my destination. The truth is that there's nothing shady about flying as a courier. No drugs, bombs or guns are involved. Courier companies are subject to strict trade rules and regulations. It's simply the means by which respectable corporations and small businesses quickly transport documents and other time-sensitive articles around the globe. Material that is air freighted is often delayed in airport warehouses; items sent by courier are accompanied by an on-board passenger and are considered personal baggage and are therefore cleared the same day. Banks, film companies, insurance concerns, and the like, might in one day's shipment send tapes, photographs, floppy disks, canceled checks, blueprints, advertising material, samples and other items by using courier companies, all of whom use regularly scheduled flights. There are a number of ways to become a courier. A few major courier companies and some smaller ones hire freelance couriers directly, though figuring out where they are, where they go and which ones are reliable can be time consuming. There is no single source of information for people seeking details about courier flights. But matching up courier companies, which need people to accompany their shipments, with travelers who want to fly on a shoestring is the sole business of Now Voyager, operated by Julie Weinberg, who at the time she came up with the idea was a struggling New York actress. Four years ago, while commuting regularly between Los Angeles and New York, she often traveled as a courier. Before long she offered to act as a clearing house for courier companies that preferred not to invest the time and effort needed to find people on their own. Her organization has grown from a one-woman, apartment operation to a multistaff enterprise in an office at the corner of Varick and Canal Streets in Manhattan. At present, Now Voyager represents about 10 courier companies and in doing so books more than 100 flights a week. There is one major drawback to flying as a courier. Since the courier company is using the luggage space set aside for ticket holders and is also often paying top dollar for additional baggage, the courier is seldom allowed to take any checked baggage and is allowed only carry-on luggage. This provides a good lesson in self-control, an especially good discipline to develop now that the Federal Aviation Administration has imposed strict limits on the | Flying Courier Class: How to Save a Bundle With Someone Else's |
125059_0 | LEAD: FOR YEARS, I WAS A ''pe-riphery shopper,'' buying only fresh produce, meat and dairy products that lined market walls. Occasionally, I navigated up and down the aisles displaying staples and frozen foods, adding imported canned tomatoes, orange juice concentrate and ice cream to my basket. But I was convinced that just about anything made from scratch was best. FOR YEARS, I WAS A ''pe-riphery shopper,'' buying only fresh produce, meat and dairy products that lined market walls. Occasionally, I navigated up and down the aisles displaying staples and frozen foods, adding imported canned tomatoes, orange juice concentrate and ice cream to my basket. But I was convinced that just about anything made from scratch was best. In recent years, however, I've relaxed a bit, and have discovered a good number of excellent convenience foods that, when combined with fresh foods, do not compromise the quality of a dish. They simply make the cooking process easier and quicker. Furthermore, some vegetables and fruits that are flash-frozen at the peak of their season are far more flavorful - and less expensive -than fresh but out-of-season produce. Fresh green peas, for example, are often mealy, waxy and almost devoid of flavor in all but a few short weeks in summer. Willa Gelber, a partner with her husband-chef, Karl Dauner, in Custom Cuisine, a Manhattan catering firm, uses tiny frozen peas and kernels of corn to add color and flavor to a rich risotto served with a stuffed capon breast. Chasing down costly out-of-season ingredients simply does not make good business sense, she says. Although most cooks prefer fresh ingredients, it is no secret that sometimes corners are cut. Cans of chicken stock, tomatoes and white tuna in oil are all to be found in Pierre Franey's cupboard. Moreover, although this chef prefers to make and freeze his own puff pastry, he suggests that the new all-butter frozen product found in supermarkets and specialty shops is quite acceptable for his baked sea bass in pastry with Pernod beurre blanc, providing that the dough has been well cared for by the store and the directions for defrosting are respected. If these simple guidelines are followed, a glamorous fish wrapped in a flaky golden crust can be had without the hours normally needed for rolling and turning the pastry. Be warned also that, while a number of food snobs eschew anything that has been frozen, | CUTTING CORNERS |
123645_2 | imagery comes from the Landsat series of earth resource satellites. The first of five Landsat satellite was orbited in 1972. Only two of the Landsat series are still active, and about 20,000 new images a month are relayed here for cataloging and storage. Over the years, African relief agencies have used the imagery to identify little used road networks so they could reach the remote mountain regions of Ethiopia. Ducks Unlimited, a public interest group, employs satellite imagery to study the relationship between wetlands and duck migration routes in North America. And two years ago, infrared pictures of the countryside near Chernobyl, in the Soviet Ukraine, revealed that the fire in the damaged nuclear reactor there was still burning several days after Soviet officials said it was out. But in recent years, about 10 percent of the pictures processed by the center have been ordered by private citizens looking for gifts and keepsakes. ''We get real busy just before Christmas each year,'' said Ronald E. Beck, a spokesman for the Data Center. The pictures vary in price, from as low as $5 for one small black and white aerial photograph, to as much as $800 for a 40 inch, enlarged color infrared print made from a satellite image. (Special order forms are available from EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, S. D. 57198.) During the summer, as many as 200 tourists a day are drawn to the center, which is about 15 miles north of Interstate 90. Visitors can order their own prints of aerial photographs or satellite imagery from browsing files in the center's library. The satellite photos don't always live up to the public's expectations. ''People have read too many spy novels,'' said Mr. Beck. ''They think they are going to be able to see people riding inside cars, or read the license plates.'' While some military spy satellites are able to see features as small as one meter across, the Landsat satellites' capabilities are much more limited. A few years ago, Mr. Beck said, he got a telephone call from a man in South Dakota who said he was having an outdoor wedding. ''He wondered,'' Mr. Beck recalled, ''if it was possible to have a satellite pause overhead, and take a picture while everyone in the wedding party looked up and smiled. ''I told him it would work only if he or his wife were 30 meters wide.'' | Baltic Journal; Archives Offers the Global Picture |
128877_1 | waterfront community, is a shining example of what the future holds for the river's edge. But, like any new neighbors, these two waterfront entities have had their differences, and the conflict that has arisen between them brings into focus an issue often overlooked as broad changes sweep over the Hudson River waterfront: Is there enough room for both new and old on the river? Officials from both New York and New Jersey are now conducting a study of the port that will determine which traditional marine services are essential and where they can be situated without clashing with, or succumbing to, the new waterfbont development. It is not expected to be completed until this summer. However, the confrontation at Claremont Channel is immediate, and already has become something of an issue in Trenton. At the center is the state's Department of Environmental Protection, which exercises jurisdiction over the water's edge. The department supports the scrapyard, which each day consumes 1,000 old cars that otherwise would have to be buried in landfills. The D.E.P. also has recognized Port Liberte as the type of residential development that respects the special environmental needs of the area, where land meets water. ''On the one hand, you've got a state policy that says we should encourage the recycling of these kinds of materials,'' said Michael F. Catania, deputy commissioner of the D.E.P. ''On the other hand, you've got luxury homes a couple of hundred feet away. There's a bit of a contradiction here.'' The very fact that Mr. Catania, the No. 2 man in the department, and other high-ranking environmental officials are involved in Claremont Channel - they attended a meeting there several months ago - gives some idea of the issues involved and the pressures that have been brought to bear on this conflict. In other confrontations between traditional waterfront businesses and new developments, the old oil-tank farms, tug-repair yards and riverside factories and warehouses have almost always quietly moved out. But the automobile scrapyard, one of the largest exporters in the Port of New York and New Jersey, won the D.E.P.'s Industrial Recycler of the Year Award in 1987 and its generally violation-free operation over the last 20 years made it impossible for state regulators not to defend it when the protests arose. ''There'd be a whole lot of cars sitting around with no place to go if we didn't have a facility | Old and New Collide on the Waterfront |
129245_1 | Yet for all its gentrification, Notting Hill is still a place where West Indians, Moroccans, Portuguese and Brits live in harmony, though not necessarily side by side. It's still funky enough to attract young people, but filled with such long-standing residents as Martin Amis and Harold Pinter. Last year nine of the new art galleries, all within a 12-block radius, staged the first Portobello Contemporary Art Festival. Their event was such a success that it is being repeated this spring, from April 21 to 24, on a larger scale. Galleries will stay open until 8 o'clock each night, musicians will provide live music, and complimentary wine will be the beverage of choice. Young artists without gallery backing will set up temporary exhibit spaces and try to cash in on the artistic spirit overflowing in visitors wandering from gallery to gallery. Contemporary art in London is finally getting its due. The opening of the Saatchi Collection in St. John's Wood and the more established Whitechapel Art Gallery are credited with creating a high profile for young artists. And the Notting Hill galleries are by no means the only venues for contemporary art: Soho and the East End are also part of the burgeoning scene. What makes viewing art such a pleasure for visitors these days is the unintimidating atmosphere associated with the newer establishments, as opposed to those along Mayfair's Cork Street. The Notting Hill gallery owners appear to be dedicated to the proposition that all gallery-goers are created equal. Crucial was one of the first galleries to open in the area. Furniture and sculpture created from discarded, everyday objects is one description of the majority of work shown by the owners Joshua and Kitty Bowler. ''I'm most interested in seeing an artist take an object and change its use, not its substance,'' Mr. Bowler said. It loses its identity if you cut and weld it too much.'' Recent works emphasize his point: the hood of an old black Mercedes is raised to reveal a drinks bar; a bed by an American, Danny Lane, is made of melded glass ropes wrapped around two storm-damaged tree trunks. The gallery itself was recently in a salvage-like state. With the philosophy that change is absolutely necessary, the owners remodel their small space on Kensington Park Road twice a year. The next phase calls for lime-washed walls with underlying silver leaf; an elaborate plaster throne | Portobello Art Festival |
129258_0 | LEAD: To the Editor: How is it possible that the country that produces Hondas and Toyotas has produced Tokyo's Narita, the Edsel of airports? To the Editor: How is it possible that the country that produces Hondas and Toyotas has produced Tokyo's Narita, the Edsel of airports? I was unfortunate enough to have to spend four hours at Narita, coming and going from Bangkok, and a more poorly designed facility I have never seen. The crowds were so great, the space so small and the seats so scarce that chaos reigned. There is only one elevator to take travelers to the so-called lounge upstairs, and that elevator is so small that three is a crowd even without luggage. The lounge is as crowded and inhospitable as the other floor. Deplaning passengers must climb two flights of stairs, carrying their hand luggage. Passengers boarding their plane must carry their hand luggage down those same two flights of stairs, board a crowded bus, drive to the plane and then wait, rain or shine, to climb up the steep ramp to the plane. ARTHUR RICHMOND Norwalk, Conn. Takashi Yasue, general manager, Passenger Service Center, New Tokyo International Airport Authority, replies: We appologize to Mr. Richmond for the inconvenience he was caused. A second terminal building is under construction, scheduled for completion in 1991. Additional seating in departure lounges and the underground concourse is planned in the near future. The elevator used by Mr. Richmond was designed only for passengers with disabilities. Because of a limited number of gates at satellites, some planes during rush hours are unable to dock at the satellite and passengers must be bused in. This problem will not be solved until the completion of Terminal No. 2. | Narita Airport |
126838_3 | of Sts. Estevao, Miguel and Tiago, the Museum of Decorative Arts, streetcars reminiscent of San Francisco's cable cars, and a spectacular view of the water. But for Mr. Esteves and his architects and designers and social workers operating out of small offices on one of the steep inclines, the reality is a poverty-stricken, declining population, down to about 8,000 from three times that 50 years ago. Many of the residents are elderly. Although Alfama is relatively safe, at least in the daytime, there are ''marginal types'' who include petty thieves, drug dealers and addicts and others, Mr. Esteves said. ''There are a lot of other problems in trying to improve the district,'' he said. ''Besides being run-down, the infrastructure is gone and since it is close to downtown, businesses are replacing people. Businesses would change the character of Alfama, and we don't want that.'' #55% of Homes Lack Toilets ''After the earthquake, the Government planned and rebuilt other sections of the city,'' he added. ''But not here; the people had to do it themselves, without any knowledge or architecture and planning. And it shows in the condition of the buildings.'' He said that 55 percent of the homes have no toilet. One-third of the residents are over 60 years old, 22 percent are single, 2.4 percent are families and only 5.7 percent are under 5 years old. The inclines and steep steps and the intricate maze of narrow, winding streets make renovation even more difficult. Most of the homes are owned by absentee landlords: only 3.5 percent are occupied by the owners. The buildings are in such bad shape and rents so low that the owners will not improve them. The city's rent control law allows some monthly rentals as low as $2, with the average at $9. Landlords can raise them only 3 percent annually. ''Many owners abandon the property to the city,'' the coordinator said. Sometimes the city takes over the property for rehabilitation. If owners do not want to pay for the work, the city will sell to renters and split the costs with the owners. That is the ideal, Mr. Esteves said. In reality, most people cannot afford to buy, leaving the city owning a lot of property. ''It is a critical situation,'' he said. ''It's difficult to accomplish much. The truth is, if Alfama didn't have the historical and architectural background, this project wouldn't exist.'' | Lisbon Journal; In Old Section of City, A Ghetto With a View |
128428_0 | LEAD: In a stunning move intended to shut out the unsolicited intentions of Pirelli S.p.A., the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company agreed last night to be acquired by the Bridgestone Corporation of Japan for $80 a share, or $2.6 billion. In a stunning move intended to shut out the unsolicited intentions of Pirelli S.p.A., the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company agreed last night to be acquired by the Bridgestone Corporation of Japan for $80 a share, or $2.6 billion. The price goes far beyond the $58-a-share, or $1.86 billion offer by Pirelli, the Italian tire manufacturer, for the Chicago-based Firestone. The new Bridgestone-Firestone deal broadens also considerably the terms of their previous agreement, reached Feb. 16. In that deal, Bridgestone had agreed to pay $1.25 billion for 75 percent of Firestone's tire manufacturing operations. Firestone said on Monday that, because of Pirelli's offer, it did not expect to complete the Bridgestone deal. More for Bridgestone The new agreement was expanded to also give Bridgestone control of Firestone's domestic network of 1,500 automobile service centers, where its tires are sold. When first approached by Bridgestone, Firestone did not want to sell the service centers. Bridgestone currently sells its tires in the United States through independent dealers and at stores of Montgomery Ward & Company and the automobile parts shops owned by the Pep Boys chain. Bridgestone said that after the merger it would keep Firestone's current management in place, retain the Akron, Ohio, headquarters of the tire operations, and keep open all Firestone plants in North America. Firestone also operates tire plants in Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, as well as in Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. Bridgestone, based in Tokyo, is the world's third-largest tire company after the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and Michelin of France. The price that Bridgestone agreed to pay for Firestone - 38 percent more than the Pirelli offer -demonstrates the importance it attaches to the acquisition. Bridgestone and Pirelli have been eager to establish a significant presence in the United States, which accounts for 45 percent of the world tire market. Pirelli Hopes Dashed Pirelli, based in Milan, has sought not only a greater foothold in the United States, but also to prevent a strong competitor in Europe from becoming more formidable. For Pirelli, the world's seventh-largest tire maker, the Firestone arrangement would have granted the company something it has long sought: a chance to | Bridgestone In Deal for Firestone |
128394_3 | included such factors as nutrition, life style, stress, workplace and housing in her definition of environment. She said ''we need to move away from the notion of single causes'' of cancer and ''need to ask new questions.'' ''When something changes so much in such a short period of time, it is imperative for researchers to seek explanations because the finding may provide a clue for prevention,'' Dr. Davis said. Further Analysis Urged Two other researchers, Dr. Schottenfeld and Dr. John C. Bailar 3d, called the new report provocative and urged further analysis to rule out possible statistical flukes. Dr. Bailar, who is a science adviser to the United States Public Health Service and a professor at McGill University in Montreal, said Dr. Davis ''is right on target regarding the need for some prompt and detailed study.'' Dr. Schottenfeld said that interpreting trends in cancer deaths ''is very tricky'' but that ''the challenge they are throwing out to us is valid.'' He said the researchers ''are being provocative and stimulating us to think about environmental chemical exposures'' and to do additional studies. The study by Dr. Davis and Dr. Schwartz showed that deaths from brain cancer and multiple myeloma remained far less frequent than those from major killers like lung cancer and breast cancer. But the brain and marrow cancers brought the sharpest increase in death rates among the elderly, Dr. Davis said. Some cancers showed smaller increases, while others showed declines in mortality rates. Unpublished data from research Dr. Davis is doing with Swedish colleagues show a similar trend for multiple myeloma in Sweden, she said. Data on brain cancers in Sweden have not been analyzed. 'The Burden of Proof' Dr. Davis said she had studied several diagnostic categories to exclude the possibilities of miscoding of cancers in data collection or improper diagnoses. She also said the increase in brain cancers began before the widespread use of CT scans, computerized X-rays that can detect brain cancers more easily than earlier techniques could. Dr. Davis noted that many years ago, some experts doubted early reports of the increase in lung cancer deaths that experts later attributed mainly to smoking. Because of unanswered questions about the rise in some cancers in the elderly, Dr. Davis said, ''the burden of proof should be on researchers to come up with an explanation rather than to continue to say that the increasing trends are artifacts.'' | Toll of 2 Cancers Is Up Among Elderly |
128517_3 | own for the bulk of the story. Mr. Morton speculated that the creators of the 1949 ''D.O.A'' had been aware of its 1931 ancestor. And, he said: ''I'm sure the German writers got the idea from somewhere else. It goes back to the first person poisoned by another human being.'' Out of Ugliness, Comedy Racism, drug addiction, man's relationships with his fellow man and with God. For most film makers, these aren't the ingredients of comedy. But for Gerard Oury, they are. Mr. Oury, perhaps best known in the United States for ''The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob,'' a hilarious attack on bigotry, is back again -with ''Levy and Goliath,'' which opened yesterday at the 68th Street Playhouse. This one stars Richard Anconina as Moses Levy, the bright light of Antwerp's Hasidic community, whose journey to Paris to deliver some industrial diamond powder involves him with cocaine dealers, prostitutes, his estranged brother (Michel Boujenah), who has married a gentile, and with a beautiful Arab woman. ''The film, in fact, deals with problems of racism in France today,'' Mr. Oury said. ''Both communities, the Jews and the Arabs, are confronted with assimilation, loss of tradition.'' Once again, as he has eight times previously, Mr. Oury collaborated on the screenplay with his daughter, Daniele Thompson, whose other films include such hits as ''Cousin, Cousine'' and ''La Boum.'' Mr. Oury explained how the collaboration works. He will propose an idea. ''If she says, 'I like the idea,' we start to work together,'' he said. ''During a few months, we meet each other every day and build the story, talking and taking notes. Then she writes. I rewrite. She rewrites. I rewrite. Then I prepare the film - the choice of actors, locations.'' Mr. Oury (who is writing his autobiography for publication Oct. 15) and Miss Thompson are now preparing their next film: ''Vanilla Strawberry.'' Stawberry, he said, will be Catherine Deneuve, and Vanilla will be Michel Blanc. The title, though suggestive of ice cream, really concerns code names. ''The basic idea is the story of the stupid French secret service blowing up the boat in New Zealand,'' Mr. Oury said, referring to the demolition of a Greenpeace vessel used to protest French nuclear testing in the Pacific. ''You have only to open the newspaper every morning to have a story for film,'' Mr. Oury observed. Mental Shifts From the genius of Mozart to | At The Movies |
129603_2 | they know the Japanese build better cars and television sets. They have a sense that America is not as competitive as it once was.'' Among Republicans, the topic has mattered less. Senator Bob Dole uses it most directly, saying, ''It is time we took control again.'' Vice President Bush does not complain about current conditions, but nods toward the subject by pledging an education system that will produce Americans who can hold their own with foreigners. For the Democrats and to a lesser extent for Senator Dole, economic nationalism incorporates solutions to what they see as major failings of the Reagan Presidency: the budget and trade deficits. But the emergence of the campaign theme is a response to a shift in the American economy that, while it accellerated in the 1980's, began decades ago: the country's relative and partly unavoidable, decline in comparison to other countries that, inspired by the American model, made great strides after World War II. Interdependence Grows With the relative decline has come a suspicion that the United States, although still by far the world's largest economy, is becoming less efficient and less prosperous than such countries as Japan and West Germany. As a result of the decline, and the accompanying interdependence of national economies, the United States has been losing its control over such essential agents of growth and prosperity as interest rates, inflation, employment and the value of the dollar. The emphasis on economic nationalism has an element of paradox. Candidates of both parties talk of regaining American precedence in the world economy, but some, like Mr. Gore, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Bush's supporters in the Administration also emphasize ''burden sharing.'' They ask Europe and Japan to pick up more of the American cost of providing their national security and of aiding the developing economies of the third world without asking them to share American influence over the world economy. The best known case of economic nationalism in the campaign is Mr. Gephardt's trade proposal. The Missouri Congressman would curb imports from countries that do not reduce their trade surpluses with the United States and curb their own restraints on imports of American goods. Benefits and Costs Mr. Gephardt sees this as a persuasive weapon to force a rapid expansion of trade for all countries. But the angry populism of Mr. Gephardt's oratory and the threat of retaliation in his proposal strikes his critics | Economic Nationalism Shapes Democratic Campaign Debate |
131322_1 | New Zealand conglomerate Fletcher Challenge bought a newsprint plant near Concepcion and 100,000 acres of forests for $133 million. Earlier, another New Zealand company - Carter, Holt, Harvey - bought half of an oil company, a wood paneling plant and 39 percent of a fishing company, an investment of about $300 million. Meanwhile, Japan has become Chile's second-most-important trading partner, after the United States. Although the Japanese cars jamming Chile's roads and electronic goods filling the shops make the trade look like a good deal for Japan, the balance is, in fact, very favorable to Chile, thanks mainly to mineral and forestry exports. Investments from Japan are beginning to arrive as well. The most significant has been the 10 percent participation by a group led by Mitsubishi in the Escondida mine project. Breakthrough in Japan Chilean fruit exporters - long successful at selling grapes, peaches, apples and kiwis to the United States, Europe and the Middle East - also accomplished what they considered a breakthrough this month with the first shipments of grapes to Japan. They said they had been negotiating for nine years to enter the Japanese market. Economic ties with China are developing on several fronts, ranging from China's construction of hydroelectric plants in isolated Chilean villages to the establishment of a $10 million copper tubing plant in Beijing by two Chilean firms. And purchases of nitrate for fertilizer by China and some European countries have allowed Chile to resume production at long-dormant nitrate sites. Business people and Government officials say the expanding economic ties are the result of several factors. One is that because Chile and the Pacific countries export many of the same things, particularly fish, fruit and forestry products, it makes more sense to cooperate than compete. Another is the wide variety of minerals and other raw materials that Chile can provide to Asian industry. Also, they say, there is a sense of being part of the same Pacific Basin, even though Chile's coastline is slightly east of New York. An Incentive to Invest A big factor in fostering the investments has been Chile's debt-equity conversion law. It allows investors to buy Chilean debt paper on the secondary market at discount, then sell it to the Central Bank for pesos at face value, which can then be used for investments. Such deals typically produce savings of 20 percent to 30 percent for foreign investors and | Chile's Growing Trans-Pacific Ties |
126175_0 | LEAD: The Agriculture Department announced this week that it lacks the legal authority to carry out a program passed by Congress in December that would subsidize the re-export of foreign-produced sugar. The Agriculture Department announced this week that it lacks the legal authority to carry out a program passed by Congress in December that would subsidize the re-export of foreign-produced sugar. The one-year program was intended to compensate developing nations for sharp cuts in the United States sugar-import quota, now at 750,000 tons a year, which keeps American prices above world rates. Government-owned commodities would subsidize the re-export of refined sugar that was first imported in its raw form at higher United States prices. Under the plan, Caribbean nations could sell the United States 290,000 tons of sugar and the Philippines 110,000 tons above prescribed quotas at the United States price of 18 cents a pound. The world price is slightly more than 8 cents. The controversial quotas prop up United States prices to protect a few thousand American sugar growers. Congress failed to give the Agriculture Department the authority it needed to subsidize the re-export of foreign agricultural products, said John Nuttal, head of the department's sugar group, in announcing the decision, which was reached Tuesday. The Reagan Administration is divided on how to respond to the department's decision, according to one official. Representatives of affected countries said failure to carry out the program would cost them about $97 million in lost sugar sales at the higher United States price. | Sugar Import Plan Blocked |
126215_2 | through education or sex therapy. Even when emotional factors - in the remaining 15 to 20 percent of cases - are the sole problem, most can be resolved through sexual, marital or psychological therapy. It is also now widely recognized -among professionals, at least - that pain in intercourse is not just a woman's complaint but also afflicts men, though much less frequently. Sex therapists estimate that 15 percent of women experience pain during sex at varying times, and for 1 to 2 percent it is a chronic problem. The following are the most common causes of sexual pain: Vaginal Dryness This is the most common, and most easily corrected, problem for women. Though most frequent in postmenopausal women who have lost the vaginal stimulation of natural estrogen, vaginal dryness can afflict women of all ages for varying reasons. Ordinarily, during sexual arousal, the walls of the vagina sweat, providing lubrication that eases penile penetration. However, sufficient lubrication may not occur when arousal is inhibited by fear, for example, or by inadequate precoital stimulation. Lubrication may also be inadequate when a woman is nursing, immediately after a menstrual period, during or after menopause (natural or surgical), after pelvic radiation therapy, during treatment with antihistamines or other decongestants, while a woman pursues a grueling exercise regimen or when she is under undue stress. For women lacking sufficient hormonal stimulation, estrogen replacement therapy usually solves the problem. When the cause of vaginal dryness cannot be corrected, there are a number of water-soluble lubricants sold over-the-counter. The most effective are products that can be inserted into the vagina, either as a suppository or through a plunger-type applicator. Use of lubricated condoms also helps. If a particular product causes an allergic reaction or irritation, try another. However, avoid oil-based lubricants like baby oil or petroleum jelly, which can only make the problem worse by clogging the pores of the vagina. Infection and Irritation The explosive increase in sexually transmitted diseases, including vaginal yeast (candida), trichomonas, chlamydia and herpes, many of which can be passed back and forth between a symptom-free man and a woman, have made this a prominent cause of sexual discomfort. Women with vaginal infections commonly experience burning, irritation and even bleeding as a result of intercourse. Men with penile lesions also find sexual contact and friction painful. Other causes of vaginal irritation can include medicated douches, feminine hygiene sprays, deodorant tampons, | Personal Health |
126139_5 | firm. The only other significant American producer, the General Tire and Rubber Company, was acquired by Continental A.G., the German tire maker, in 1986. Pirelli's recent bid follows unsuccessful attempts in the last few years to establish a joint venture with Firestone as well as another with the Armstrong Tire and Rubber Company subsidiary of Armtek Inc. ''We looked at all of the American companies, but Firestone was the most complete for our needs,'' said Gian Battista De Giorgi, chief executive of Pirelli. ''It had the strong position in the United States, which was important to us, and a strong presence in Europe, which we thought was equally important.'' Mergers in Europe Europe has been undergoing a similar consolidation. Both Michelin and Continental have swallowed competitors within the last decade, and Sumitomo Rubber Industries of Japan bought an 85 percent interest in Dunlop, the British concern. ''We used to be concerned with just the German market in the 1960's and 1970's,'' a Continental executive said. ''But we learned that the auto industry wanted a global deliverer.'' Goodyear's reaction to competition from Korean tire makers illustrates the global nature of the tire business. Three Korean tire makers offered in 1986 to supply a group of West Coast distributors with tires at a price that was about 15 percent below what Goodyear had been charging them. Goodyear decided that none of its American plants could beat the Koreans' price for the tires. So the company turned to a plant it had in Brazil. Because of low labor costs and Government export incentives, ''we decided that we could increase production in Brazil and sell the tires on the West Coast for the same amount the Koreans were offering,'' said Mr. Mercer, Goodyear's chairman. ''We couldn't have done that if we were not a global company.'' South Korea's low manufacturing costs are one reason why such tire companies as Goodyear and Michelin have been eager to establish a manufacturing presence in that Asian country. The emergence of South Korea as an important competitor in the world automobile industry has made tire makers only more eager to manufacture there. Michelin already makes tires there through its minority-owned joint venture with a Korean company. Goodyear expects to receive within weeks the South Korean Government's permission to build a majority-owned factory there, said William Newkirk, a Goodyear spokesman. Noting that Hyundai, the South Korean auto maker, is | Global Fight in the Tire Industry |
132107_0 | LEAD: Cigarette exports are expected to rise sharply this year, largely because of growing demand in some Asian countries, according to an Agriculture Department analysis. Cigarette exports are expected to rise sharply this year, largely because of growing demand in some Asian countries, according to an Agriculture Department analysis. An increase of 10 percent, to 110 billion cigarettes, is forecast, the department reported. ''Recent efforts to lower trade barriers in Japan, Taiwan and now, South Korea, are having a major impact on U.S. cigarette trade,'' the report said. ''Sales have yet to reach their full potential in Far East markets, with sizable gains expected in 1988.'' Much of the increase will be in Japan, which is the largest foreign market for American cigarettes. United States cigarette sales to Europe are expected to increase slightly this year. Exports of unprocessed tobacco are expected to rise 4 percent, to 203,000 metric tons, this year. | More Cigarette Exports Seen |
125778_1 | consumers won't accept UHT milk with the curd on it because they assume it has gone bad, even though it hasn't,'' said Suzanne Nielsen, a professor of food science at Purdue University. She and her colleagues are hoping to isolate the enzymes that control the process. Producers of unrefrigerated milk want to quadruple their stake in the $24 billion milk business. They now account for less than five-tenths of 1 percent, or $120 million, of that business. The producers hope to grow to a 2 percent share. Until recently, the UHT milk operations of most producers had not been profitable. ''Our biggest obstacle has been the fact that consumers have become so regimented to buying milk out of the refrigerated dairy case that it's extremely difficult to get them to think differently,'' said Jim Sumner, a spokesman for Dairymen Inc., a cooperative milk producer in Louisville, Ky. The difference between pasteurized milk and UHT milk is the degree of heat used. During pasteurization, milk is heated to 161 degrees Farenheit for 16 seconds. It is then cooled and must be kept refrigerated until it is consumed, otherwise microorganisms still present can cause it to spoil. UHT milk is heated to between 275 and 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 to 8 seconds. Producers do not disclose their exact process because varying time and temperature is believed to have an effect on taste. Heating milk to near 300 degrees kills the remaining bacteria. After sterilization, the milk is placed in an aseptic container similar to those used to package some fruit and vegetable juices. Aseptic containers are air-tight, multi-layered packages that are hermetically sealed to guard against bacteria. In the aseptic method, both the food contents and the container are kept sterile. Hydrogen peroxide and heat are used as sterilizing agents for the food-content surface of the packaging material. The entire packaging process takes place in a sterile environment. The researchers at Purdue believe that a complex biochemical system that involves the conversion of plasminogen to plasmin is responsible for the curd. Both substances are present in the blood and cross membranes in the cow's udder and enter the milk. Over a long period, the plasmin begins to break down some of the proteins in milk that comprise casein. Research is focusing on enzymes that activate the plasminogen molecule and lead to its cleavage and formation of plasmin. There also are substances | Business Technology: Advances; Building a Wider Market For Unrefrigerated Milk |
124072_1 | of the camps and summer programs - in both English and Spanish - there is a list of summer jobs, both paid and volunteer, for young people with disabilities. ''These facilities are not easy to find,'' said Ruth Rosen of Brooklyn, whose 17-year-old son, Mark Wolf, is autistic. Through the agency's guide, she has twice found summer camps in upstate New York that placed him with active disabled children. Abbe Berger, a program director for Resources for Children With Special Needs, said that most of descriptions in the guide are furnished by the camps and programs themselves. She suggested that parents become acquainted with a camp or program and its director before enrolling a child. ''We're not giving them a stamp of approval,'' she said. ''We think a camp may be appropriate, but we certainly want the parents to ask questions.'' The first time Resources for Children With Special Needs handed out its guide to camps was four years ago at a fair in the International Center for the Disabled in lower Manhattan. Then, the guide contained only 31 summer programs. ''It was a stormy day,'' Ms. Berger recalled, ''but about 400 people showed up.'' Over 250 booklets were given out. In addtion to the guide to camps, the agency also offers ''A Parents' Guide/Taking the Next Step'' for parents of young adults with disabilities. The agency's ''Family Support Guide,'' a list of community services, crisis-intervention centers and transportation services for people with disabilities is scheduled to be published in June. The agency, which opened in 1983, is supported mainly by foundations, including the New York Community Trust, the Booth Ferris Foundation and the Altman Foundation. Copies of the guide to camps are available for $4 from Resources for Children With Special Needs, 200 Park Avenue South, Suite 816, New York, N.Y. 10003; 212-677-4650. Free copies of the guide will be distributed on Saturday from 10:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. at the March Into Summer Festival at the Brooklyn Children's Museum, 145 Brooklyn Avenue (St. Marks Avenue). The festival is specifically for children with disabilities and their families. In the mask gallery, for example, special tables for children in wheelchairs will be set up. Youngsters attending the festival can learn how to make masks, and they may try on different masks from all over the world. The museum's sound gallery, where children may play different instruments, will also be open. | Summer Programs for a Disabled Child |
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