‘age 8
THE BATTALION
THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 1981
State / National
Na
Rare form of lightning is powerful
‘Superbolts’ studied on prairies
United Press International
NORMAN, Okla. — Researchers are con
centrating in Oklahoma and surrounding
states in their efforts to locate and study a rare
form of “super” lightning bolts, scientists at
the National Severe Storms Laboratory said.
The “superbolts,” previously thought only
to strike tall towers or in mountainous areas,
have been recorded striking the prairie lands,
researchers said.
David Rust is a member of the Storm Elec
tricity Group, headed by three storms experts
at the NSSL, that is conducting pioneer re
search on the bolts.
Rust, a physicist, said 31 of the bolts have
been documented in severe Oklahoma storms
in the last two years.
He said the lightning team once
documented six positive bolts within eight mi
nutes in a storm near Norman and 18 others in
50 minutes in a severe thunderstorm in the
Texas Panhandle.
The superbolt research is centered in Okla
homa, the Texas Panhandle, and parts of
Arkansas and Kansas, he said.
The bolts have been linked to aviation acci
dents during winter storms near Japan, he
said.
The power-packed bolts now found in se
vere storms can cause explosions or can melt
objects. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration scientists believe.
Rust said the superbolts can carry 10 times
the 20,000 to 50,000 amperes found in normal
lightning and can cause rapid heating that
could trigger an explosion or melt an object.
Common lightning is a discharge from a
negatively charged cloud base to the positively
charged ground or from cloud to cloiid, he
said. But the superbolts are a strike from a
positively charged cloud to the positively
charged earth. .
He said it has not been determined why the
charge jumps from the positive cloud to the
positive earth, but he suspects it’s because the
ground charge is much less than that of the
cloud.
Rust said the superbolts look like any other
lightning to the naked eye and the team has
been unable to determine where the bolts
have struck to investigate the damage caused.
The study group uses measurements of the
electrical fields around the storms and optical
and video recordings of the lightning to docu
ment the positive bolts, he explained.
He said the bolts aren’t something new, but
the research on them is.
Bald eagle stolen from Uncle Sam
A study W.C. Fields
would appreciate
United Press International
SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I.
— Drinking for “medicinal pur
poses” — the excuse comic
W.C. Fields used on more than
one occasion — has some basis
in fact for middle-aged men.
A University of Rhode Island
study, released Wednesday,
found middle-aged men who
down the equivalent of up to
five beers a day have fewer nut
ritional inadequacies than their
teetotaling counterparts.
“We expected just the oppo
site,” admitted Susan S. Perciv-
al, instructor of Food Science
and Technology, Nutrition and
Dietetics at URL “We expected
alcoholic beverages might re
place some foods in the diets,
thereby causing a greater num
ber of nutritional deficiencies.”
The study suggests the con
sumption of alcoholic beverages
may supply some necessary
nutrients — niacin, riboflavin
and phosphorus — that are mis
sing in nondrinkers’ diets, Per-
cival said.
Percival stressed URI resear
chers don’t recommend people
improve their diets by drinking
alcohol. Rather, they suggested
people eat the right kinds and
proper amounts of food and
drink alcohol in moderation.
The Percival study started
out as research into the caloric
and nutrient composition of the
diets of 61 Rhode Island men,
with an average age of 48.
Researchers wanted to lem
more about the eating aid
drinking habits of middle-aged
men and the causes contribut
ing to overweight. Eight of 10
men, 40 to 65, are 10 to 20 per
cent overweight.
The reasons for midriff bulge
weren’t that mysterious! A leu
active pace during middle age
rather than more eating added
pounds to the men’s waistlina,
Percival found.
While the drinkers werejuit
as prone to a thick middle as the
non-drinkers, she found the)
were getting a larger share of
their recommended dietary In
take of nutrients established u
adequate for healthy people.
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United Press Internationa]
BROWNSVILLE — Whoever
snatched an American bald eagle
from the Gladys Porter Zoo was
literally stealing from the govern
ment.
“Whoever did this is in trou
ble,” zoo deputy director David
Thompson said Tuesday. “That
bird belonged to the U.S. govern
ment and they (the thieves) are in
possession of stolen property.”
Thompson said the 10-year-old
male northern eagle, considered
orie of an endangered species, was
taken from a pen in which
zookeepers had placed the bird for
shipment to Florida.
Thompson said the bird, which
had not been on display at the zoo
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for a year, was to be shipped to
Florida, for display in a “living
museum” when it was taken Mon
day. He said the bird had required
surgery on its wing several years
ago and was unable to fly.
“It’s either the first thing they
(the thieves) saw or they were only
interested in the bird,” Thompson
said.
Although it is illegal to sell
American eagle feathers, Thomp
son said the bird’s plumage can
bring at least $25 per feather on
the black market.
He said when the bird sheds its
feathers each year, the zoo was
required to turn the plumage over
the the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
Pusser wanted his own
funeral home, mom says
•di4>ye\&
John Duri(
would depc
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For
President
^4 Vice President
^ Secretary/Treasurer
Literature Chairman
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Howdy Chairman
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54"Pick up applications in Rm. 216 MSC Student Gov-]
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United Press International
ADAMSVILLE, Tenn. —
Buford Pusser, the clubswinging
sheriff of “Walking Tall," actually
wanted to be a mortician and
“could have gone right to the top”
in the box business, his mother
says.
Helen Pusser, 72, said in a
copyright interview Wednesday
in The Memphis Commercial
Appeal her son was the opposite of
the volatile Buford Pusser por
trayed in the movies.
“The movies are just bug dust,”
she said. “Buford wasn’t anything
like the pictures. He never tre
ated people like that. He wouldn’t
hit you unless you hit him first
three times. But if you hit him that
third time, you better look out be
cause you’d be on the floor.
“It’s like that car of his that
they’ve got in a museum with a
bullet hole in it. People think
somebody was shooting at Buford.
Well, he came home one night
and told me what really happened:
“He said he was chasing another
car and he was going to shoot the
tires out with his pistol. He was
driving with his right hand and
trying to shoot with his left hand.
But he missed.
‘“Mom,’ he said, ‘you know
what I did last night? I shot a hole
in my own car.’”
Mrs. Pusser spends most of her
time telling a mother’s version of
the sheriff, who died in a car
wreck.
“Buford’s whole heart’s desire
was to be a mortician,” she said.
“He’d come home from the
Marines with asthma, then had
been in a wreck. I got him a job at
the funeral home. The man in
charge said he was the best hand
he ever saw.
“Buford embalmed a man all by
himself three months after he
went to work,” she said. “I believe
WASHIN
oined two '<
King Presidi
if Buford had lived long eiiots
he’d have got himself a fuid
home.”
Instead, her son left tke ftari
home bound for Chicago, wh
he worked in a bag factory ul
took wrestling lessons.
"Buford needed a
ing for ever quitting his job will
the bag company. He could hi Ij^ethtebwc
gone right to the top maltia L provti( ] t h
boxes. But he wanted to com ffog
home. He never wanted to kb
from here.” , J with the lar
I wish I d never heard of Ik
movies — they got things»
wrong,” she said. “In‘FinalClii|>
ter, ’ they show Buford out tl
work, boys beating him _
sticks, him having to work on olt ! ; |] a l ancec i j
ca ^ s ■ i ■ . Supportive (
"Shoo, Buford neverfixedupi: Armstrori
old car in his life. He drove a nc* George Bui
one every year. He wanted Ik Treasury Se
newest cars and the best clotbfi iiafsbn Max 1
— and he had them.” i the Reagan l
Budget Con
bsed spendi
In an inti
discussed wi
ofidentifyin
into balance
Tarleton student’s death
follows ‘near drowning’
Armstronj
balanced bu
But sineetb
heeonimitt
ilmost as bi-
United Press International
STEPHENVILLE — An auto
psy report indicates a Tarleton
State University football player
died from complications of near
drowning, police said Wednes
day.
Garry Dean Wright, 24, a
senior from Mart, Texas, died ear
ly Tuesday, six hours after he was
pulled from the swimming pool at
the off-campus apartment com
plex late Monday.
About 20 Tarleton students
were “horsing around” and throw
ing each other into the pool at the
Royal Manor Apartments after the
apartment’s private club closed,
police said.
When it was noticed that
Wright was in trouble in the wa
ter, he was taken from the pool,
and two other students tried to
revive him.
Wright, who was scheduled fc
graduate in May, was aleNuli-
tercollegiate Athletic Assocwto
all-conference defensive end IB
year.
Sgt. Pat Davis of the Stephr-
ville Police Department saiatlb'
mal ruling in the death would k
made later by Justice of the Petf
Sarah Miller.
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Rep. Delco receives recognition
for Texas public school ed bill
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J3517 TEXAS AVE. 846-4124 j
United Press International „ _
AUSTIN — Rep. Bill Haley, D-Center, paid tribute Wednesdayto llgerit Mike
Rep. Wilhelmina Delco, D-Austin, for her efforts to change thecunl- ilvie club Ti
culum in Texas public schools, although Haley said he was theoie fessional - ui
receiving the credit for the effort. be tolerated
“My name and picture are in the papers, but it should be Ref
Delco,” Haley said during a rare personal speech on the Housefiooi
Haley said Delco had been responsible for the bill because shehnl
sought to get similar legislation done during the last session. He Mid
he and Delco had “almost identical bills” this session, but the Houtf
Public Education Committee had decided to report his bill out
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