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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 1981)
I nc: DM | | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1981 i-eiije National Flat Earth Society calls shuttle orbit runaround United Press International LANCASTER, Calif. — Charles Johnson, president of (he Flat Earth Society, says he has it all figured out—the space shuttle Columbia didn’t really orbit Earth. Johnson Sunday called the U S. space program “a con tinuing giant ripoff of the tax payers of America. ” The Columbia lifted off all right, Johnson says. “But it torhit the earth, he said. “It can’t he done. The earth is t. “Are they hanging by their feet in Australia? No they aren’t. ” Johnson said the Columbia took off from Cape Canaveral and landed at sea a few minutes later. Landed at sea? “Of course,” he said. “Those big tanks keep it from sinking.” The films purportedly taken from space were done in a stu dio, Johnson said. It was done just like in “Buck Rogers,” he explained. He said Saturday’s spectacu lar landing was accomplished by hauling the shuttle aloft and dropping it over the desert air base near Lancaster where he lives. He isn’t sure how it got from the Atlantic Ocean to Edwards. “We don’t know all the details,” he said. “Magicians saw ladies in half.” Johnson said the space prog ram is run by professional cri minals. “You know how Florida is — riddled with crime,” he said. Johnson said the round earth myth is an old superstition. In telligent people know it is flat, but reactionaries don’t believe it, he said. NAACP leader wants more blacks in U.S. space program United Press International BALTIMORE — The presi dent of the regional NAACP says he’s tired of seeing whites “gain all the glory from the U.S. space program and he wants to see a black astronaut in space sometime soon. Following the landing of the space shuttle Columbia, Emmett Burns said, “I’m sick and tired of seeing the great white fathers gain all the glory and see my people with nothing gained.’ Burns emphasized he is not accusing the National Aeronau tics and Space Administration of racisim, but said: “I can certain ly charge delay and neglect as to blacks in space.” Burns, in a recent letter to NASA administrator James Beggs, asked: “Must black Americans wait another 25 years in the history of the prog ram before they lift off?” Police give hand to ‘thieves’ Fake burglaries are ignored United Press International NEW YORK — Students faked car burglaries to see if New Yor kers would intervene, but unlike people in San Fancsico and Phoenix, only a few challenged the “thieves. Some New Yorkers even offered to help the criminals. A study showed that only 12 out of about 8,000 people who passed by the 250 “break-ins” into parked cars in New York tried to stop and apprehend the "thieves.” Professor Harold Takooshian, a social psychologist at Fordham University, conducted the New York study, which was published in this week’s New York maga zine. Students pretended to burg larize their cars and then surveyed passersby for their reactions. The daytime car break-ins were staged in midtown Manhattan from October 1977 to September 1980 with student volunteers us ing coat hangers to break into the vehicles in most cases. To test the possibility that the passersby feared being harmed for intervening, Takooshian placed a uniformed police officer 50 feet from some of the cars broken into, the magazine said. The study said that 40 passersby offered to help the “thieves” and five witnesses to the break-ins de manded part of the loot for their assistance. The survey said most of thos< who offered to help the “crimin als,” including several police offic ers, were “naive Samaritans” wh< did not know a theft was in prog ress. The rest of the passersby simpl; did not notice or ignored tin break-ins. Consumers’ big buying may stop Home and Auto Stereo Equipment * / if ^ ^ C> A? ^ The Best Prices in Town! ^ c? % Surgery removing fetus considered breakthrough United Press International IANN ARBOR, Mich. — Re searchers predict that consumers will avoid going into debt by not purchasing such large assets as cars and houses and by putting their money in savings from now until early 1982. A study by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Re search said consumer worries ab out high interest rates, unemploy ment and depleting savings are contributing to the trend toward saving irtoney. “Growth in consumer sales during the balance of 1981 and early 1982 will continue to be slow and uneven, ” said Richard T. Cur tin, director of the survey on con sumer attitudes. “Large discretionary purchases will continue to be responsive to trends in interest rates, but more favorable employment and real in come trends are needed before sustained growth in housing and vehicle sales can be expected,” he said. During July and September of 1981, the research institute con ducted its 156th survey of con sumer attitudes which targeted 2,000 respondents. The results were compiled to measure con sumer buying attitudes. Woodstone Audio 913 Harvey Rd. College Station 693-4423 United Press International SAN FRANCISCO — Surgeons operated on a fetus and returned the unborn baby to the mother’s womb where it survived tofulltenn, the University of Cali fornia Medical Center has dis closed. The operation was performed on an unidentified San Francisco Bay area woman four to five months ago in San Francisco by Drs. Michael Harrison, Mitchell S. Golbus and Roy A. Filly. It took place in the 21st week of the pre gnancy. The baby died after birth be cause of undeveloped lungs — a complication not directly related to the operation, which corrected a severe urinary tract blockage that would have killed the fetus early in the pregnancy. The procedure is considered a breakthrough because the pre gnancy continued for the full term. A hospital spokesman said Sun day that doctors have been in structed not to talk to reporters in lieu of publication of the official surgical report in an unnamed medical journal. Confirming only that the surgery had taken place, the spokesman said hospital officials were concerned the report might not be published in an accredited journal because unauthorized sources had leaked it to the press. Earlier attempts at operating on a fetus to correct defects have been unsuccessful because of the threat of miscarriage. Surgery sti mulates the uterus to go into labor and the fetus is pushed out. New drugs and ultrasound tech niques to view the fetus and pre vent contractions enabled the re cent successful operation. The 1 '/2-hour procedure neces sitated cutting into the mother’s uterine wall, withdrawing the lower half of the fetus and return ing it after about 30 minutes, a medical source familiar with the operation said. AGGIES! Douglas Jewelry 10% AGGIE DISCOUNT ON ALL MERCHANDISE WITH STUDENT ID (Cash Only Please) We reserve the right to limit use of this privilege. Downtown Bryan (212 IN. Main) and Culpepper Plaza YESTERDAYS p “A Fine ‘ ■Iff f Wi* 1*1141 Ylf 'YTAB'fc f t f > f 'tYfZ’ 41 if IJLivlAliJLf 551 —«IrllAiVff If it I Aim BACKGAMMON — DARTS Jlfext to Luby’s HOUSE DRESS CODE ¥ ¥ ¥ Everyone Teaches... Everyone Learns Texas Student Education Assoc. Nov. 18th 502 Rudder Wednesday 7 p.m. Speakers: ¥ ¥ Dr. John Hoyle — “A Great Motivator — A Great Teacher” Dr. Ray Leighman — “Ins and Outs of the English Proficiency Exam” Come ask questions and join us! (Article in “What’s Up” Section)