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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1979)
THE BATTALION MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1979 Page 3 Silver Taps set for Tuesday for A&M. doctoral student Computer saves KAMU work, cash l * m Battalion photo by Sam Stroder Debbie Monroe, a disc jockey for KAMU-FM, works on (the station’s audio board. Among other things, KAMU uses an automated system that alternates music tapes with up dated weather reports. National Public Radio network shows [and live local news. Station manager Jacola Bolger says most listeners can’t tell automated broadcasts from live shows. n hwrice up 3 cents a month in Texas By MARJORIE MCLAUGHLIN Battalion Reporter One employee at KAMU-FM works 11-12 hours a day, never takes a lunch break and never picks up a paycheck. The employee is “Proteus,” a sys tem named after the computer in the 1976 movie, “Demon Seed.” Proteus is programmed with a daily schedule which instructs it to alternate music tapes with updated weather reports. National Public Radio network shows and live local news at the proper times. Station manager Jacola Bolger said even regular listeners have trouble telling when the automated system is operating. “We’ve done a good job of blend ing the live programming with the automatic programming,” she said. Bolger said that as far as she knew, KAMU-FM, a member of the National Public Radio network, is the only public radio station in the country using the automated sys tem. According to Bolger, Proteus hasn’t eliminated any jobs yet at the station. “We haven’t cut back on anyone,” Bolger said. “It just re duces the number of hours that any one person has to work a week. Previously, the disc jockeys had to split up the 18-hour, seven-day- a-week job among themselves. The students still work on the weekends, but Proteus works from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. The students work from 5 p.m. until midnight weekdays. Besides reducing the work load, Bolger said that the system will save the station money — something that a non-commercial radio station, funded primarily by donations, never has enough of. “Buying the system will save the price of paying wages for more workers,” Bolger said. Bolger said the system has been operating since January. “When it was installed, it was such a new system that it didn’t even have an instruction book,” Bolger said. An engineer from the company that manufactures Proteus (the real name of the system is Control-16) gave KAMU workers a three-day in structional course on how to operate the computer, but after that, the station was on its own, Bolger said. “Most of what we know about the system we have learned by trial and error,” she said. Prices cover plant theft, speaker says When the customer gives the auto parts dealer $50 for a water pump for the old flivver, he’s paying for more than the cost of the part and a reasonable mark-up. He’s also paying for the thousands of dollars worth of water pumps and other industrial and manufactured items that are stolen from the fac tory each year. The losses are usu ally made up in higher retail prices. “Industrial theft is greater than ever before,” said C.G. Keele, se curity director for General Motors. “We call it the ‘parts after’ market and although some of the thievery comes from the employees who walks out of the plant with the stock in his lunch pail, the majority of losses are highly sophisticated thefts of truckloads of lots and greater quantities.” Speaking at an industrial security seminar held for industry experts at Texas A&M University, Keele said it is nearly impossible to place a dol lar amount on the value of products that are stolen each year from the manufacturer. Many of the thefts occur without the thief ever han dling the goods, he explained. “if the thief knows the inventory and accounting techniques, goods can be shipped, received and the transaction erased with the push of a few buttons." Silver Taps will be held Tuesday night for 44-year-old John J. Burke, a Texas A&M University doctoral student who died Sept. 12 in Massa chusetts of cancer. Services were held in Malden, Mass., for Burke, a student in the business administration program here, said officials. Burke is the second student fatal ity of the current academic year. The Silver Taps ceremony begins at 10:30 p. m. B-CS gasoline sales decline By FLOYD WILTZ Battalion Reporter Gasoline prices in Brazos County ise in September even though con- ■imption went down, according to Ian informal survey of gasoline ialers and distributors last week. The average price of gasoline in Ihina tour fields germplasms An agricultural exchange team’s cquisition of important germplasm fsorghums, millets, soybeans and egetables on a recent visit to China hould benefit the United States, a dentist with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station says. Dr. Fred R. Miller, interna- onally known grain sorghum re- earch leader with TAES at Texas t&M University, made this obser- ation following a just-completed ive-week visit to the People’s Re- mblic of China. “Our foremost objectives were to tudy and arrange for the acquisition • | if germplasm of major food and feed J :rops. Seed of some of these impor- ant Chinese crop collections are leing returned to the U.S. in the ifficial pouch of our agricultural at- ache. . “Following a period of quaran- :ine, the crops will undergo a seed ncrease here, and then will be dis- :ributed to research scientists iave un«<- country,” Miller ' said. ud KenJ^ (2j 1 i nese soybean and millet varieties are as good — and in some r respects, better — than U.S. varie- r ties. But our sorghums are far y ear ’ 1 1 superior to those we studied during inistrepD^our tour of the PRC,” Miller said.' The scientist said that U.S. re- edij have tiroi etter na , of the Ad fe said. nnedv lent amf ense ora ne is u"" 1 31'V Texas rose 3 cents a gallon, accord ing to a report from the American Automobile Association. The report listed the average price for regular as 89 cents a gallon; 93 cents a gallon for unleaded; and 96 cents a gallon for premium. Most area service station dealers said they had expected the return ing Aggies to put a dent in the gas supply, but that instead, consump tion has gone down. “The supply is plentiful,” Broach Oil Company marketing director Kenny Broach said Friday. Broach Oil manages the Redmond Terrace Amoco service station in College Station, and 42 convenience store gasoline pumps throughout East Texas. Broach said his prices rose 3 cents during the second week of Sep tember. “We’ve even extended to being open on weekends,’’ Vickie Chouinard of D&B Oil Company said. Some service station dealers were not sure about gasoline supplies for October since this is the month when the refineries turn most of their production facilities to man ufacturing heating oil for the winter. An employee of the Gulf service station at 420 Texas Ave. said the station had 90-95 percent of the gasoline allocation it had last Sep tember. He said he expected to have enough for the beginning of October but didn’t know about the end of the month. Claude Dobbins of Dobbin’s Fina said he has plenty of gas, but ex pects Texas A&M’s home games to take a lot of the current supply. riiRiOHlfiAS UimS OF OFT-GIVING | 3609 Place E. 29th - Bryan Over 40 Varieties of Whole Bean Coffee HIGH CLASS — NOT HIGH PRICED CUTS FOR MEN AND WOMEN the VARSITY SHOP Within walking distance from A&M Across from the Campus Theatre 301 Patricia 846-7401 Layaway a little birthday fire! Opals for October, even better for Christmas! Every October-born lady adores opals! And with Zales convenient layaway, you can shower her with opals for less than you’d dream! No interest or carryins charse while your purchase is in layaway a. $75 b. $75 c. $135 All in 14 karat qold. STUDENT ACCOUNTS WELCOMED Enjoy it now with Zales credit. Master Charge • VISA • American Express Carte Blanche • Diners Club ZALES, THE DIAMOND STORE Illustrations enlarged. ® YAMAHA CR-220 RECEIVER 15 WATTS PER CHANNEL onist rep ratio quibble i searc h ers should he able to supple- H eS ment American crops with the newly acquired germplasm. Some of the Chinese varieties are quite old and trace back to native wild strains that still exist there. “Additionally, we should benefit in food production by studying the Chinese technology for growing amounts of vegetables per unit of land. However, we will need to add the quality factors which were miss ing,” Miller said. “Perhaps one of the greatest ben efits to the U.S. will be in follow-up study on how to use a crop to its fullest potential, for the Chinese have perfected this technique. We , | were impressed by how they take IC -uiilfi sorghum crops and harvest the grain, then compost the leaves and residue, and then use the stalks for fuel,” he said. Miller was the only Texan invited to serve with the agricultural scien- 1 I tific exchange team for the China visit. The U.S. recently entered into ^>1 the new exchange program, which rP ftJ involves reciprocal visits from scien tists of countries involved. -m' ( Miller and hi's fellow team mem- S} t/ hers visited the Academies of Ag ricultural Sciences and nearby pro duction units around Peking, Shan dong, Liaoning, Heilongjiang and ” 1 WOW & FLUTTER IP (WRMS) 0.025% S/N RATIO STEREO TURNTABLE SYSTEM A fully automatic quartz-locked direct drive turntable SPECS NATURAL SOUND AM/FM STEREO RECEIVER. OUTSTANDING 0.05% TOTAL HARMONIC DIS TORTION. INCREDIBLE 90 d-B PHONO S/N. CONTINUOUSLY VARIABLE LOUDNESS CON TROL. ACCURATE, VERSATILE TONE CON TROLS. 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