The Battalion
Vol. 70 No. 70
6 Pages
Friday, February 4, 1977
College Station, Texas
News Dept. 845-2611
Business Dept. 845-2611
anels may resist
arter’s economic plan
By DONALD H. MAY
United Press International
\SHINGTON — Congress has given
Hrst solid clue as to what it may do with
pent Carter’s tax cut and jobs plan.
3 House Budget Committee, first of
al panels to act on the proposal,
d yesterday to double the amount
WMer proposed for jobs during the first
the I iar
an|1 It left Carter’s tax rebate and tax cut
•ose kjoposals unchanged, but some of them
® under attack in other committees,
i still are considering the package,
re President had proposed $1.8 billion
bending for jobs this fiscal year as part
is $31.2 billion, two-year package. By
es of 14-10 and 15-8 the committee ap-
led an additional $1.8 billion in the
form of job-creating programs for youth,
minorities, state and local governments
and public works construction.
That still was not as much as the AFL-
CIO and the Conference of Mayors wanted
for jobs,and there were certain to be new
fights when the bill reaches the full House,
reaches the full House.
Budget Committee Chairman Robert
Giaimo, D-Conn., said heavy pressure
from constituents and mayors to reduce
unemployment and fears about the eco
nomic impact of the cold winter prompted
the panel’s action.
Arthur Burns, chairman of the Federal
Reserve, told the House Banking Com
mittee the adverse weather would have no
“large or lasting” effect on the economy.
He said “‘further good gains in economic
activity” are likely during 1977.
Burns said Carter’s proposed $50 per
person tax rebate is an ‘“inefficient” way to
stimulate the economy. He said the ad
ministration “has not proved any stimul-
tion is needed. I would have preferred to
wait a little.”
The rebate also was criticized in the
House Ways and Means Committee but
many said they would learn to live with it
because by now the American people have
come to expect it.
The Senate Banking Committee urged
that $5 billion be added to Carter’s pack
age for low-interest mortgage purchasing
to encourage housing and that $20 billion
be committed for housing programs over
the next several decades.
There were moves in several commit
tees to compress Carter’s proposed $2 bil
lion authorization for public works this
year and $2 billion next into $4 billion this
year.
The House Budget panel concurred in
that, although it included only $500 mil
lion of this in its spending estimate for this
year. It said the rest would be spent later.
Ski Aggieland in any type of weather
Battalion photo by Kevin Venner
Even though an Aggie may not be able to make a
trip to Colorado or New Mexico for some snow
skiing, he can always utilize the slope on the Texas
A&M University campus. Bill Gregory (second
from right), a sik instructor with the Physical Edu
cation department, instructs a class on fundamen
tals of skiing. The artificial snow used on the slope
near G. Rollie White Colesium resembles a thick
form of Astro-turf, the synthetic grass that is used
to cover many football fields.
‘Dolphinese” presented to crowd
Scientist studies dolphin speech
Roots
Battalion photo by Pat McAuliff
X
'4
Frank Matta, a floriculture greenhouse technician, doesn’t expect to find
his ancestoral history in these roots as did Alex Haley in his novel. Roots,
produced for television. Actually, the graduate student is inspecting this
[ dumb cane (dieffenbachia plant) for diseased and rotting roots. Matta
ays that if the juice of the plant is taken orally, temporary paralyses of the
;vocal cords occurs. Matta also said that he enjoyed the Roots series,
shown last week on ABC.
By DEBBIE PARSONS
A tape recording of “dolphinese” was
played last night by Dr. John C. Lilly dur
ing his lecture on “Interspecies Communi
cations. ”
There was standing room only in Rud
der Theatre to hear the first lecture spon
sored by the Great Issues Committee.
Lilly restarted his research in dolphin
communication and dolphin-human rela
tions two years ago. He had taken a vaca
tion from the research in 1968, but since
he first began there have been many
changes.
Lilly said the apparatus and computers
had improved 100 per cent when he re
turned to do research.
“This encouraged me to go back and
work with the dolphins and to try to com
municate with them at a level that humans
can understand,” he said.
“What we need is an understanding of
them (dolphins),” he added, “based upon
our understanding of one another. This is
difficult.”
Lilly first started working with dolphins
at the California Institute of Technology,
where he said he looked upon dolphins as
animals, as opposed to humans. He then
realized that he was prejudiced, that we
are all animals.
“I then went to medical school and
realized that man is indeed an animal,”
Lilly said. “I found man, without knowing,
treats those who have been damaged men
tally or physically in ways that are hardly
special.
“Sometimes I’m a little worried about
the medical profession and its attitudes
towards its own species.”
Lilly became interested in dolphin
brain functions, structure, and the relation
of the dolphin brain to the human brain.
“These basic questions took up my whole
life,” he said.
“As I began working with dolphins, I
began to be very deeply disturbed by the
reactions of the dolphins to our training
program,” Lilly said.
In their dolphin brain research, Lilly
and his colleagues used electrodes.
“I was startled to find that the animal
was pleading, not fighting, against what
we were doing, he said. “It was pleading
that we stop the electrodes, and it even
went so far as to mimic my voice.”
At first Lilly said he thought it was his
imagination, but tapes of the dolphin were
recorded and played back, and the plead
ing dolphin could be heard.
Lilly played a tape of what he called,
“dolphinese” to the audience. “I’d like you
to see how different and alienated their
language is from ours,” he said.
The audience listened to a dolphin put
ting out single pulses of sound at 150,000
cycles per second. The tape had been
slowed down 100 times from the original
tape, so the audience could hear it proper
ly-
Dolphins transmit a beam of ultrasound
that goes out from the larynx, through
their bones and teeth, hits an object, and
bounces back to the dolphin, to let it know
where the object is.
Dolphins are totally dependent on this
beam, in order to find fish to eat and to
communicate with one another.
Lilly then played another tape of the
two other voices that dolphins have, a
sound he termed “very peculiar.”
“We tend to interpret these voices in
terms of our own acoustic knowledge, and
we re caught in the confines of our own
language and our own treatment of other
species,” he said. “I hope to be able to
convert these sounds and interpret them.
“I feel humble. Dolphins have been
around longer than we have, they’ve
adapted to their environment better, and
they have a survival record that we might
not match. Their ancestory goes back, un
broken, 15 million to 50 million years ago,
so I would like to talk to an old whale or
dolphin.”
Lilly’s previous research was funded by
government grants, grants from foun
dations, and individual contributions. Lilly
would rather not be backed by the gov
ernment. He said he would rather be
backed by people who are really interested
in his research with dolphins.
“We are asking friends to contribute:
friends of dolphins, friends of ours; people
who are really interested,” Lilly said. “We
don’t accept contributions unless the per
son is really interested.”
lEN’S
of
feu? meal plan offers $50 coupon books
ms
v ing
ishiM
9
1 1
By RAY DANIELS
here is now a board plan allowing you
at anywhere on campus except the ath-
dorms.
he new plan is a system of $50 Coupon
ks, redeemable in the dining halls,
bars and Memorial Student Center
ities. It is the result of efforts by the
dent Services committee of Student
ivernment .
[he advantage of the plan is conven-
Ce. Students can pay for a number of
|als in advance, avoid carrying large
punts of cash, and eat in a variety of
Pes. The principle objection is that no
count is given.
]T.P. Awbrey, administrative assistant of
Services, explained the cost of the
The seven-day board plan is based
iO per cent of the meals being missed,”
aid. This allows the price to be less
an the actual cost of 20 meals a week,
ith the coupons there are no missed
pis so no discount can be offered.
Troie Pruett, chairman of the Student
vices committee, said they had origi-
y requested a one or two meal a day
Student Body President Fred McClure.
He said the promotion is being done with
inexpensive flyers.
The books themselves are about football
ticket size with tear-out stamps of $1, 50
cents, 25 cents, 10 cents and five cents.
They are available in the Food Services
offices in the basement of Sbisa Dining
Hall.
If the program becomes widely used,
several things could happen said Davis.
First, Student Government would try to
have the coupons put on fee slips to make
it more convenient. Second, large sales or
a switch from board plans to coupons by
board students could upset the financial
system of food services. The results of this
would probably be higher board prices, he
added.
Only 14 of the books have been sold
since the beginning of the semester, and
Davis said he didn’t know of anyone trying
to switch from the board plan.
“I don’t forsee any volume sales,” said
Awbrey, “since there is no discount.”
McClure said he considered the pro
gram a step toward a one meal board plan,
and did not seem to think the coupons
would sell widely.
Consumers can expect price stability
Florida resumes citrus fruit shipments
ftSM
at 7'- :
ruett contacted Ed Davis of Business
rs about the program. He explained
at several ideas were discussed but the
pon book plan was agreed upon,
tudent Government is currently pro-
ting the coupons.
We said we would be willing to do the
motion if they took the program,” said
United Press International
WESLACO — Consumers can expect
citrus prices to stabilize now that Florida
has resumed shipments, according to a
U.S. Department of Agriculture market
ing specialist.
John Engle said that yesterday prices
for ruby red grapefruit had increased
about $1.25 a 48-piece carton (medium
size fruit) since a Jan. 21 freeze caused a
10-day embargo of Florida fruit, but that
oranges increased only about 25 cents a
carton for all sizes.
“Now that Florida has resumed ship
ments, we don’t anticipate any further in
crease. Prices already have begun to
stabilize,” said Engle, who heads the de
partment’s crop reporting service in the
Lower Rio Grande Valley.
Engle said the stabilizing market had
reduced demand for Texas citrus fruits.
The Florida embargo caused shipments
of grapefruit from semitropical South
Texas to zoom above 100 carloads of 1,000
Energy proposal causes
action in Texas legislature
weather
Fair and mild today, continued fair
tomorrow. High today in upper 50s.
Low tonight in upper 30s. High to-
. morrow in low 60s. Winds light and
. 7 P variable. No chance of precipita-
*tion.
United Press International
AUSTIN, — Speaker Bill Clayton wants
action to insure Texans will not suffer be
cause of President Carter’s emergency
energy law.
“We in Texas will do all that we can to
help those energy deficient states, but we
will not sit back and watch our businesses
and industries close and our people shiver
in the cold,” Clayton said yesterday.
“We paid a price for our assured supply
of natural gas. If out of state consumers
want an assured supply of natural gas in
the future, they too must be willing to pay
the price.
He said he has asked two state agencies
to draft contingency plans to protect Tex
ans in the event the federal government
attempts to allocate Texas gas supplies to
other states or a federal energy bill causes
higher gas prices in the state.
He said he has asked the Railroad
Commission and the Governor’s Energy
Advisory Council to prepare the con
tingency plans.
Clayton said the state may have author
ity to ban escalation of prices under exist
ing gas contracts, but conceded he does
not know if the state has any power to pre
vent allocation of natural gas to other states
if Congress approves it.
cartons each at the end of January, Engle
said, but by yesterday demand had taped
off to 31 carloads. Orange shipments also
increased to at least 90 carloads during the
same period, but fell to 42 carloads by yes
terday.
Besides slow demand preceding the
Florida freeze, the wettest winter in years
has hampered the harvest of Texas citrus
this winter.
Despite the lack of sunshine, Dr.
Richard Hensz of the Texas A&I citrus
center said Texas fruit is of excellent qual-
ity-
“It’s in good condition, good quality.
There’s nothing wrong with the fruit,”
Hensz said.
“There’s no trouble with the fruit ripen
ing. It’s really at its peak. The trouble is
getting in there to harvest it. We’ve been
plagued this whole season, going way back
to the fall, from getting in there to harvest.
“You can see the fruit on the tree and
you can’t get in there to pick it.”
Engle said Texas producers enjoyed the
biggest price increases in grapefruit be
cause the state’s production of 12.5 million
boxes compares favorably with Florida’s
crop of 14 million boxes of pink seedless
and ruby reds.
However, he said Texas’ output of 7.3
million boxes of oranges is almost insignif
icant when measured against Florida s
projected 142 million boxes in a bumper
crop before the freeze.
fMlS
*4 ^
4 -
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Battalion photo by Pat McAulif-
Ten. . .nine. . .eight. . .seven. . .
An alpha model rocket is launched at sunset by Bill Jackson and Jimmy
Bell, freshmen political science majors. The rocket and its equipment cost
about $20 and will fly up to 2,000 ft. before a parachute automatically ^
opens and eases the rocket safely back to earth.